


Blink Before Tragedy

by Merakibbe



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ???? - Freeform, Abuse, Adam's last name is Wright, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Blood and Injury, Child Abuse, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Cussing, F/F, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Galras have soulmates too, Gay Keith (Voltron), Haha and guess what!, Hurt/Comfort, I MEAN SLOOOOW BURN, I Tried, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Kid Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Like an annoying amount of pining, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Mind Control, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Parent Death, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Possible Character Death, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Um can I also say, When I say slow burn, a lot of pining, but it's mutual, klangst, like later in the story, really slow burn, you won't see it for a while!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:02:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 60,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21883453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merakibbe/pseuds/Merakibbe
Summary: Keith has beaten, he's been bruised and thrown out of families more than once.Loving is hard, it's difficult after his hard childhood; learning how to be loved is even harder.Words of encouragement and worry for him appear on his arm.Learning is an experience for the both of them.A Super slow burn Klance soulmate AU that I thought I would share.
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt & technology
Comments: 73
Kudos: 226





	1. Everything Has A Beginning And An End

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I first started writing this my Jr year of high school and it's also my first fic that I'm actually posting here. I'm not the best writer but I do enjoy peoples reactions! I spend most of my time correcting what I can with what I've learned, I do not have a Beta! If there's anything you want me to correct, send it to the comments! It helps a bunch!!!

Keith knew he was the only one. He knew that the others would rather be without him. His chest clenched tight when they looked at him, they glared at him, they sneered when he walked into the room. He was tired of all the homes he’s been transferred to, of all the families and people who’ve thrown him aside. He was done.

Being beaten wasn’t a problem, Keith could easily avoid those, but having no safe place or person he could go to was starting to slowly deteriorate any tiny bit of hope he had left, except the words that would appear on his wrist. He would choke on his tears when they would send him to another home for being “too violent or too aggressive”. But the words on his wrist would tell him he's strong and nice as if the person on the other side knew him. There would be families that Keith would think would keep him, but in the end, they would be the same as all the others. He thought one would keep him for being ten years old, but all of them shoved him back into the system.

Keith started bottling everything in, he would burst when fights started against him. Keith felt like he was losing all his humanity, almost becoming a robot. That’s when Shiro found the raven-haired boy. It was almost like the clouds went away or he was given water after being dehydrated for months. Keith was still afraid though, what if Shiro got tired of him? What if Shiro hit him too? Was he going to yell at him? Call him a monster too? Keith shied away from any physical contact Shiro made and flinched when Shiro was able to touch his shoulder or to ruffle his hair.

“Hey, Keith.” Shiro sat down by Keith on the sidewalk outside the high school. He had a large bag filled with random things, one being a large first aid kit. Keith simply knew about it from his continuous fights that would lead to full-on brawls. Shiro had decided that he would always bring it with him after he had seen the aftermath from one of Keith's fights. His lip was split, one of his eyes swelled up, nose bleeding and his arm was awkwardly bent. Keith started fidgeting then, not because he was scared of Shiro, but because of the other students walking out the doors of the school passing them. Some were random faces in a crowd, others were bullies or bystanders not willing to help him.

“What?” Keith turned his head, shying away from the stares from others, looking at Shiro. Someone walked past, nudging Keith hard with their foot. He glared at them and was about to get up until Shiro grabbed his bicep and pulled him back. Keith stumbled back down then slumped over his knees, grumbling about being able to take care of himself.

“Why are you still here? Why aren’t you at a different school if you’re constantly getting into fights? Isn't your dad going to do anything?” Shiro looked Keith over, touching one of Keith’s bruises on his face then to his bloody and beaten knuckles. Keith winced when Shiro applied pressure to a part of his hand, then Shiro started pulling out the ridiculously large first aid kit.

“Cause Dad doesn’t want to, he wants me to ignore the others and toughen up.” Keith shakes his head and sits up. He looks around the almost empty parking lot. One of the cars has it’s hover lights on, slowly draining the proton engine, it’s red and scratched up but still works like a dream. Keith only knows cause it’s Shiro’s, the one he escaped in when Shiro first met him.

The first day Shiro met him, the teacher had everyone do a flying simulation. Takashi Shirogane was one of the representatives sent by Garrison to recruit new students, so the simulation was a test for the students. Everyone else was doing the simulation with trouble and was constantly crashing before the tenth level. Keith stood the farthest away from everyone and stared out at the vast desert plain, watching the high grasses moving with the slight breeze and the crows drifting side to side in the sky.

“Keith Kogane, you’re next.” The teacher glared at Keith, as if telling the raven-haired boy there would be repercussions if he tried anything. Keith stood up and walked silently to the machine. The door opened and the screen on top flashed. 

**Mike Woogan- lv. 14 - 59.752 minutes**

The students excitedly grouped around the boy pointing at the screen and Shiro. Keith rolled his eyes and walked into the machine. He sat in the pilot's seat and grabbed onto the controls. The sounds started and the screen flashed on. Keith automatically went through four levels in the time it took all the other students to go through half of the first. He jerked the controls when the meteorite field started moving, Keith flew through layer after layer shifting the controls slightly avoiding the rocks. He bit his lip when one of the rocks came flying at him but avoided it by diving. When he righted himself, the field only grew larger with harder obstacles and adding bots.

Keith sped up diving and twisting around each of the objects. He fired shots whenever he had the opening, and took unnecessary risks to get the extra bots. He didn’t even care what level he was on, he only wanted to know what was at the ending. The bots became more frantic at firing and Keith only drifted by and shot them blank. It felt too easy, he’d only scratched his wings up a bit and had his weapon system overheat only twice. He wanted a challenge and started rounding the bots to chase him. The bots would fly into the rocks left and right trying to get a shot at him.

Keith finished all of them in seconds. He started feeling smug but pushed it down when one of the wings almost hit a bot. Keith finished more layers and started seeing a thinning to the meteorite field. More bots started appearing trying to take Keith out, but as quick as they came, the faster he shot them down.

Keith finally got to the open area and breathed out relief. The hologram stars brightened and seemed to blink at him. A blue star flashed and hummed at him then mumbling small words and flashing pictures. The blue light fills everything, encompassing the raven-haired boy, then eventually screaming

**FIND ME**

Keith jerked back and blinked. In an instant, the blue light disappeared and words flashed on the screen: **Simulation Complete**. His chest felt tight and his eyes were wet with tears. He felt a warmth though, he didn't feel scared or claustrophobic. He felt a deep-rooted sadness, a lonely but hopeful spark. 

Keith stood up then walked to the door, wiping at his face, he took a deep breath before placing his hand on the doorknob. He started feeling anxious, a trembling and aching worry, he had finished the simulation. He didn't want then staring at him like he was more of a freak than they already did. Keith took a deep breath and turned the knob. Everyone was staring at him as he stepped out and to the outer side of the large group.

When the machine’s door shut behind him, he finally looked up at the screen. It flashed green then clears all the names and displayed in large letters:

**Keith Kogane- Finished - 24.001 minutes**

Takashi walked up to Keith and placed his hand on Keith’s arm smiling. The students were still surrounding Mike but instead of whispering excitedly, they were either gaping at him or where sending glares and whispering about the raven-haired boy.

Takashi brought him towards a group of older men. The men had been mumbling about the other students while Keith had been waiting for his turn. But now they were talking hurriedly and stumbling over their words.

“Keith Kogane? We would like to recruit you to become one of our students at the Galaxy Garrison. Free tuition and supplies included, we would recommend you to accept our offer. Our cause at the school is to explore and study space and the unknown. If you're willing, we would like you to start your beginning high school year.” One of the ten administrators speaks after looking Keith over. Takashi smiles down at Keith and nudges his arm, letting go of Keith’s arm in the process. Keith looks at the men and then takes a glimpse behind them.

Five vehicles, two being hover vans/six-passenger vehicle, one being an equipment carrier, the fourth being a soldier unit vehicle, and the last one probably a personal vehicle belonging to one of the administrators or Shiro.

The hover vans would be too difficult to manage an escape and the equipment vehicle would be useless. He didn’t even want to step near the soldiers or the locking mechanisms it contained for anyone without an identification card.

Keith smiles then shove through the group of men. He sprints to the personal vehicle, slipping into it with ease, and powers it on. People start shouting then and a couple of soldiers are almost to him. The vehicle rumbled to life and Keith automatically slams the gas pedal.

The vehicle speeds through the open gates towards the open mass of the desert. He passed his foster home and his fathers’ old shack. His chest clenches when he watches it disappear on the horizon. He passed everything, ending up at an outlook his father had taken him to whenever Keith had cried or shut down.

The sun was just barely setting. This was his favorite time of the day, every animal and person were settling down for the night and the sky changed its colors from bright and yellow to a soft blue then purplish navy color. The moon brightening from its dull state during the morning.

Hands grabbed Keith’s arms and shoved him into another vehicle that shut out any view to the outside. When the vehicle stopped and the doors opened, they were back at the high school. Keith sighed and got out.

Hands shoved the raven-haired boy forward and left him stumbling to get balanced by himself. His teacher yelled at Keith, hitting his leg with a meter stick over and over again. He crumpled to the ground but covered his head.  
  
“Stop! Is this any way to treat a child?! He was scared!” The hitting stopped and silence surrounded Keith like a cage. Hands touched his arm but Keith scrambled back closing his eyes, holding his hands out.  
  
The hands came again but slow and careful. Keith still flinched and there was a quiet gasp, he felt a soft prod to get up and felt himself following the movement up. Keith opened his eyes to Takashi Shirogane, the very man Keith had stolen the car from. Keith raised his hands again to cover his face, but Takashi took it as wanting help up, and Takashi gently grabbed Keith's hands and lifted him.

Keith winced as he stood. His body felt limp as if he had run for miles and miles. He felt his legs give out but didn't do anything to save himself. Takashi must've known he was dropping because he wrapped Keith's arm around his shoulders and held him by his side. 

"Mr. Shirogane, you don't have to do this. I deserved everything that I've been given and I don't need your pity." Keith tried pulling his arm back and moving away from the help, but Takashi shook his head and brought Keith around and onto his back.

"Call me Shiro, and don't worry about me pitying you because I don't. Let me help you." Keith nodded his head and slumped onto his back. Takashi Shirogane helping an orphan, that'll look good for his reputation. The raven-haired boy slowly drifted off but jerked awake when Shiro started walking.

"What establishment, school, or business abuses children for wanting to get away from his peer's prejudices. He was being judged the minute he stepped out of the simulation. Don't even try lying to me because you all saw it too. What has he done to any of them?" Shiro was scary, he was calm but furious. He forced everyone's attention without even knowing it. Keith looked down ashamed, everyone would take the teachers side once she told them what Keith would do almost weekly.

As if the teacher had read his mind, she stepped forward.

"Keith Kogane is violent and harmful to all of the students. He hasn't gone one week this school year without getting into a fight with the other students. Some of the students only want to be his friend, but they come back to me all beaten up and bruised. He is a force this school cannot have anymore. Do what you will with him Mr. Shirogane, he isn't part of my class anymore from this point forward." Keith snapped his head up and opened his mouth to beg her not to but Shiro beat him to the punch.

"Are your opinions based on what the students have said or have you seen the start of the fights yourself?" Shiro shakes his head, jostling Keith making him gasp quietly in pain. Keith noticed his leg was starting to swell slightly and there were faint seeps of blood.

Younger Keith had drifted off before he knew what was going to happen to him.

"Keith? Do you want to go on a ride? Come on kiddo, I need some input." Shiro took out an alcohol wipe and started dabbing at Keith's knuckles. Keith tried yanking his hand back but Shiro only gripped his hand harder.

"OW!! SHIRO!!! STOP IT!! THAT HURTS!" Keith squirmed and writhed where he sat but Shiro only held on tighter. Keith stopped moving and let the needle pricks of pain continue, while Shiro brought out a water bottle and poured most of it out on Keith's knuckles.

"It wouldn't hurt as much if you would stop moving and if you would stop getting into fights." Shiro shook his head and finished up cleaning his knuckles out. He started smearing the antibiotic ointment that reminded Keith of rotting eggs. Shiro brought out some bandages and medical tape. 

He places the bandages first and then starts wrapping the tape. Keith has watched Shiro bandage his hands, knees, and stomach before. Sometimes Shiro has to wrap up most of Keith's arms and maybe his neck if he's unlucky.  
  
"Has your soulmate said anything about your knuckles?" Shiro was finishing Keith's first hand when he asked.  
  
"I haven't looked. They're usually busy with something else, so I don't need them to worry about me." Keith shook his head and sniffed. In reality, Keith had ignored any writing that appeared. He was worried that his soulmate was annoyed or tired of all of Keith's screw-ups or fights. He didn't want them to think about him enough to spend their time writing to him.  
  
Shiro twisted his arm around, "Well it seems like you're wrong."  
  
Keith looked up and watched the writing appear on his wrist and around his arm. The writing was always in a blue pen or marker. It was in blue paint at one time but had smudged away a couple of minutes later returning in pen. Keith liked watching the flow of the letters, cursive-like letters looping and big in some parts.

**_What happened today? Are you okay? It looks like your friend is cleaning them up again. But seriously are you okay?_ **

Shiro smiled and started putting the aid kit away. He had his soulmate, who he had already met. Keith pulled out his red pen waiting for his soulmate to stop writing. He had once started writing when his soulmate wasn't done and had a full rant about interrupting from them.

**I ran into a wall again, so I beat it up. What else does it look like?**

Shiro laughed when he watched Keith write it out in his chicken-scratch handwriting. "You've gotta stop being sarcastic or your arms are going to be covered in blue again." 

Keith picked up his backpack and started walking towards Shiro's car, while his soulmate caught on to the sarcasm. Shiro unlocked the car and they both got in. Shiro texted his boyfriend Adam before starting up the car.

**_Wow really? Man, you must really love staring at the ground. ;p_ **

Keith chuckled, then looked up to see his current foster home. He instantly closed off and stopped smiling. Shiro turned to say goodbye but paused when he saw Keith.

"Only a couple more weeks kiddo. It's almost over, you won't have to worry about them anymore." Shiro touched Keith's shoulder and smiled. Keith nodded his head and opened the door then stepped out. He started towards the front door and could already hear the yelling.


	2. Let The Teardrops Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith goes home but some places aren't really home. Families aren't families if they don't love you or want you. Decisions are made and Shiro brings a new person into his house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a warning! There will be forms of fighting, violence, blood, chocking, and abuse. If you want to skip it then you can Ctrl F and go from They started yelling/ to \"What are you doing?!" ... It is a major part of this chapter but there is a good bit of story after the fighting.

Keith steps off the stone path that leads to the front door, glass shards are strewn across the pavement and once vibrant green grass is now a sickly yellow. Shiro got a phone call as he was backing out so he couldn't see Keith turning to ask him if he could stay with Shiro a little longer.

Keith had been brought to this house when he was twelve. The system had warned him that if he made any problems in the foster home again that he’d be sent to another state, but unlike all the other homes and families, Keith knew he’d be stuck in this one.

The wife was a vet, she was small and thin. Keith was a few inches shorter than her, but when she saw Keith, she thought of him like all the sickly animals that are brought into her facility. Broken, weak, and in need of her help.

The husband was a new English teacher at the jr. high Keith had gone to. He was massive and had a lumberjack feeling to him. Whenever Keith had gone to visit him at work, the teachers would look at him with disgust. None of them knew that the other kids were the problem except his foster dad.

When the couple took Keith in, they saw it as an opportunity to change some kid’s life. In the end, it wasn’t Keith who changed, it was them. Just like all the other kids in the foster home, the husband had said they all loved each other and no one was left out. Keith really did try to believe them, and yet he was always the one being thrown to the curb or made to do everything. Other foster homes would hit or throw things at Keith if he even came close to any of them.

In the beginning, whenever the raven-haired boy came home from school, looking beat up and bruised, Mack would shake his head and comfort him. Keith would flinch every time he came close, but Suzan would make tea and talk to him about what happened. Keith started opening up, he started looking to them for help and he helped whenever he could around the house. The other foster kids would play with him and mess around in the field behind the house.

It must have been because of all the fights Keith got into, Keith could only think of that reason for why they changed. It wasn’t fast or obvious, it was just with subtle things. Suzan started taking more shifts and coming back more tired, Mack would come home with packs of alcohol and slump into the couch for most of the evening.

They started yelling at each other over small things, like the dishes not being done or something on the floor that wasn’t picked up. Mack would start throwing things at anyone who would walk in or Suzan would shove Mack. 

Today was different though, Mack had come home later than usual and Suzan asked him a question to which he didn’t answer. Suzan touched his arm and asked him if he was okay, but when Mack looked at her she stumbled over her words. His face turned downward, he raised his hand up slowly as if he was going to touch her cheek.

_Slap!_

Suzan fell to the floor with her hands coming up to touch her cheek. Keith went to help her until a glass bottle shattered at his feet.

"Don't touch her! Leave or you'll be just like her too!" Mack picked up another bottle to throw at Keith, Keith scrambled out of the room to the bottom of the stairs. 

Keith was shaking, his eyes were filling up and his throat was closing. He could hardly breathe. Keith knew he should've stayed, but what could a fifteen-year-old do to a large man. He looked around searching for something to use against Mack. His ankle twinged and bled a little after getting hit by the bottle shards.

"People always say that love is blind, and I finally believe that, because it really had to be for me not to see what you really were, pathetic. Suzan, you became worthless to me the minute you signed that paper for him. I told you it was a bad idea after everyone at work told me about him. Yet you still wanted him for the damaged and destructive thing that he is." Mack gripped her hair then threw her head down to the floor.

Keith could hear her sobbing, it wasn't the loud full cries that he would hear her do late at night. They were broken and ugly, choking back so she wouldn't be too loud. The other children were outside playing, Suzan probably feared that if they heard her, they would come in to see what's wrong.

Keith ran into the kitchen and found a rolling pin on the table. His hands were shaking as he picked up the roller. Suzan's cries became silent making Keith frantic. He ran back into the living room where Mack was leaning over an unconscious Suzan with a glass shard. Before he could think otherwise, Keith flung the rolling pin.

The rolling pin flew in the air until it hit Mack on the back of the head.

Mack slowly turned around, and as Keith saw his face his breath stuttered. Mack stood up straight then walked over to the raven-haired boy and grabbed his throat. Mack lifted Keith up to where his toes were barely nicking the ground. Keith scrambled his hands trying to grip and hit at Mack's arms.

Keith was starting to get lightheaded when Mack threw him at the wall. Keith hit the wall and then the ground hard, he groaned and tried to get up clenching his teeth while trying. Mack crouched next to Keith and tugged his hair up to look at him. Keith's hands automatically went up to try and get Mack's grip to loosen.

Mack grabbed one of Keith's wrists and slammed it into the wall. A crunching sound broke the silence of the room and Keith screamed out in pain. He bucked his legs, catching Mack in the chest and sent him sprawling to the floor. 

Keith slid away from the wall, his head spinning as he crawled towards Suzan. Mack got back up and kicked Keith in the stomach, his hands coming towards Keith's throat but Keith slammed his feet at Mack's chest again and Mack fell to the floor.

Mack landed near the coffee table and used it to help him up. He grabbed an empty bottle on the floor and threw it at Keith. The bottle hit the side of Keith's face and broke into millions of pieces.

The pieces started slicing into Keith's hands and neck making him hiss in pain, his shirt was torn in different places and blood started sliding down the side of his head.

"Hey, Keith! You forgot your-" Shiro came through the open door with Keith's backpack to see the murderous scene in front of him. Shiro dropped the backpack and ran to where Keith was coughing. Mack went towards them but Shiro stood up.

"What are you doing?!" Shiro shoved Mack away from Suzan and Keith. Suzan was slowly coming to and let out a whimper when she saw her husband.

Shiro knelt down, placing a hand on her arm as one of the foster kids came running in smiling but stopped when she saw everything.

"Call the cops please." Shiro handed the girl his communicator and turned to Mack. Shiro stood up and frowned at the man, he placed his hand on Mack's shoulder and shoved him outside, the police arrived ten minutes later after Shiro left with Mack.

Keith looked at Suzan and the tears he had tried keeping in fell. She started crying too, Suzan closed the remaining space and brought her arms around Keith's back pulling him into her. She rubbed his back and her tears eventually stopped, but Keith's kept going.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to ruin everything for you! I'm sorry I'm not better like all the other kids!" Keith choked out. Suzan's hands kept on rubbing his back, if not faster, she frowned and pulled away.

"Sweetheart what are you saying? None of this was your fault." Suzan smiled at him, wiping some of the blood from his face.

"But-" Keith started.

"No. Don't you dare listen to any of those words he said. He is not the same man I married years ago. He changed a couple of years before you came into our home and I thought bringing you here could help him. I'm sorry for believing you could change him. I'm sorry for using you." Her eyes started filling up again.

Shiro walked back into the room with an officer. The officer helped Suzan up while Shiro helped Keith, the officer started asking Suzan questions when they got outside. An ambulance had been called over to attend to Keith and Suzan's injuries. Once they had seen the state of them, they had been taken to a nearby hospital.

Suzan had a gash along her leg and smaller cuts along her arm. She had a large blackish bruise forming on the side of her forehead. She ended up having to get fourteen stitches in total and seven staples. Her stitches mostly went on her cuts to her arms, where she had fallen onto the broken glass that was on the floor. The staples all went to the gash on her leg.

Keith had to get sixteen stitches, three to the cut near his temple, two to the three cuts on his arms, and seven to the cuts on his stomach. With the smallest cuts, the doctors glued or placed adhesive bandaids on them. The doctors didn't think Keith needed surgery on his hand but did need to wear a heavy brace to keep everything aligned.

The officer that had been talking to her back at the house came to Keith in his room.

"Hi, Keith. How are you doing? I've been talking to Suzan and she's decided to relinquish her role as your foster mom. You'll be living somewhere else now." Keith flinched back, letting the blanket fall and his shoulders slump.

"What? What do you mean? Why?" Keith felt his shoulders tremble and his eyes beginning to water. The officer shook his head and went to touch Keith's knee but Keith flinched back before he could.

"She doesn't think you'll be safe with the other children in case Mack is released on probation, instead of being placed in jail of course. She doesn't want you in the house anymore." The officer shook his head and looked in the direction of where Suzan was.

"That doesn't tell me why I have to leave." Keith retorted back angrily.

A hand patted his shoulder and Keith looked up. Shiro sat next to him with a bright smile on his face.

"Because I'm taking you home kiddo. You're going to be living with me." Shiro smiled and ruffled Keith's hair. Keith shook his head and slumped into the bed, letting his tears fall. Shiro's hand brushed his tears away and smoothed his hair out of his face.

Suzan came over in a wheelchair to Keith's bed with tears falling down her face the whole way. "I'm sorry Keith. I know you think I'm the closest thing you have to a mother, but I used you. I used you and didn't think anything of it. You aren't an object but I treated you like one."

Keith tried getting off the bed but Shiro held him back and slowly shook his head. The raven-haired boy tried reaching for her almost desperate but stopped when she started turning away.

"Please don't leave me too." Keith started sobbing then, his hands coming up to his face and his body slumped into Shiro. Suzan was rolled back into her room sobbing. A nurse walked in an hour later to talk to Shiro about being able to go home in a couple of days.

After the nurse left, a police officer came up a little later telling Shiro that they were taking Mack to a holding cell until his court date came. Shiro nodded his head a couple of times while the officer talked. The officer shook his head when Shiro said something after a few minutes. Keith turned away from them, straining one of his sides, sighing and wiping his eyes.

Keith had felt himself getting angrier as the days went by, Shiro didn't ask him why he had fought with Mack, and Suzan had denied any visits from Keith.

Finally, the day came when Keith was allowed to leave. Shiro had signed the papers and the Garrison had paid for most of Keith's medical bills. Shiro and a few nurses helped Keith into the car.

Shiro gets into the driver's seat and turns to look at Keith in the back.

"How does food sound right now?" Shiro smiled.

"Why aren't you asking me what happened? Why aren't you upset with me?" Keith watched Shiro then shaking his head after a few minutes. "Food sounds good." He ended up saying.

Shiro nodded his head and powered up the car. As they left, Keith stared out the window at everyone coming and leaving the hospital. Some frantic, while others were meandering in.

Gradually, the hospital became smaller and smaller. Keith watched buildings fly past and people disappear.

Shiro brought them to his apartment on the Garrison base and helped Keith out of the car. Shiro ended up carrying Keith into the apartment, setting him down on the couch. After Shiro had set Keith down and started towards the kitchen turning on the stove. The raven-haired boy laid down on the couch in the middle of the room, immediately falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually planning to not do child abuse or any child/parent fighting but I didn't want Keith to run away. I wanted someone to take him in without any hate from them. I also changed a large portion of the story realizing that they had to get stitches and mummified for their injuries... oops. The next chapter will change to present tense instead of past tense. I'll be adding more tags as the story goes on sooo..... spoilers.  
> 


	3. Fighting Sucks And Soulmates Are Curious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School is new and Keith gets excited. Lots of soulmate talking and they unknowingly meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! This chapter was going to have some Christmas stuff in it but I decided it would be better just to have this by itself. I also wrote a little more as a present? but you probably won't even notice that haha. Yeah. Soooo enjoy?

Shiro wakes Keith up after a couple of hours passed. Keith feels a burning on his arm and finds his arm almost completely covered in blue handwriting, looking almost frantic and worried.

__**_Soulmate?!_ _What happened?!_ _Is this from those bullies?_**

**_There’s a huge cut above my temple!_ _What did they do to you!?_ _Are you okay?_**

**_Oh my goodness there’s bruising on my neck!_ _Did they strangle you?_ _Soulmate, what happened?!_**

**_Do you want to talk about it?_ _Did you get help from your brother/friend?_ _Did you call the cops?_**

**_I’m here if you want to talk to me._ _There are small cuts all over my arms and chest!_**

**_Soulmate did you get help?_**

Keith sighs and starts looking for a red pen. He tries getting off the couch but grunts in pain laying back down. Shiro walks into the room while Keith groans as he tries getting back up again.

“What are you doing bud?” Shiro smiles and walks to the edge of the couch. Keith frowns up at him and tries again. After Keith tries for the fifth time, Shiro gently pushes a hand to Keith’s chest stopping him from trying again. Keith starts to get upset as Shiro walks out of the room then coming back, handing Keith a red pen and a bowl of soup.

**I’m okay now. Some stuff happened and I had to leave. I’m fine though so stop worrying. Sorry about the marks, they should disappear soon for you.**

**_You never answered some of my questions and I don’t care about the scars._ **

**I did get help from my friend. I kinda live with him now I guess**

**_Oh, so you’re not with the couple anymore?_ **

**No. They didn’t want me anymore.**

**_I’m sorry. I’m here if you wanna talk you know._ **

**I know**

Keith moves around the couch to lay on his back instead of sitting, he turned to look at his back and his arms finding his back black and blue with some parts being a harsh red. The cuts didn’t get too deep so the scars wouldn’t be too bad, the one above his temple though was just high enough that there wasn’t any harm to his zygomatic-orbital artery and enough to the side that it didn’t hit his temporal artery.

The doctors were afraid of that last night when they first saw it but it wasn’t spurting blood; the doctors decided it wasn’t life-threatening, but it was deeper than ¼ inches deep so they decided stitches were the best option instead of gluing it or using adhesive tape.

Keith picks up his bowl of soup and starts spinning it slowly. Shiro walks into the room, scaring Keith and almost making him spill the whole bowl on his lap.

“Keith, do you want to check out the Garrison with me? We can enroll you this week for this upcoming year. And don’t worry, the students coming in will be the same age as you.” Keith nods his head and sips another spoonful.

“I look like crap though Shiro.” Keith huffs out, his eyes rolling when Shiro laughs.

“Don’t bother with that stuff, I don’t think the girls will think of you as bad.” Shiro starts laughing harder but stops when Keith frowns and scrunches up his face.

“What’s wrong?” Shiro looks Keith over as if he’s trying to figure something out.

“I don’t think I like girls that way. They seem weird to me, they always feel like a sister or friend. It makes me feel awkward and weird when they try asking me out.” Shiro nods his head and then stays silent for a bit.

“Have you ever had a crush on someone?” Keith chokes on his recent spoonful and looks at Shiro bewildered.

“Haven’t you?” Shiro laughs again making Keith fidget and sit up.

“Keith, I’m not making fun of you. I just want to know if you have.” Keith nods his head and wrings his fingers together.

“I liked a boy named Tommy last year, he stood up to the other kids for me and held my hand when I would get angry or upset.” Shiro smirks and Keith already starts moving back away from his pointed stare. Keith’s arm stings when he tries shoving himself off the couch again. He manages to get himself a bit off the couch, enough that he can slide down and slump into the floor and then roll onto his stomach. Shiro sits next to him on the floor watching Keith groan and throw his arms around his head. The red pen falling between him and the couch.

“He held your hand? Awe Keith, I didn’t know you were such a charmer.” Keith shrieks and tries batting Shiro away but Shiro dodges the attacks and picks Keith up like he weighs nothing.

“SHIRO! THIS IS UNFAIR!” Keith squirms and thrashes in the tall man’s grip, almost making Shiro drop him. Shiro just laughs and dumps Keith on the couch. Shiro picks the red pen up and tosses it at Keith’s face “accidentally”.

“Be careful with your hand, that brace isn’t as protective as you think it is.” Shiro walks away with Keith’s empty bowl. Keith rolls his eyes, bringing his legs up and wrapping his arms around his legs. His head falling to the dip between them.

What are you planning for today’s adventures? 

Keith smiles as the writing slowly appears on his bicep. He finds a pair of pants, a black t-shirt, and a red jacket next to a lamp on the small table by the couch. Keith quickly grabs them, wincing with the weight in his injured hand, and starts getting dressed with the red pen in hand.

**_Come onnnn tell meeee_ **

**Man, you’re impatient.**

**_Some would say I’m eager_ **

**You write as if you’re messaging me**

**_Tellllll meeeeee_ **

**You’re just proving my point**

**_You’re the jerk who isn’t telling me anything._ **

**I’m going to my new school**

**_Yay! That’s exciting!_ **

**Not when you look beaten to a pulp**

**_Aww, you poor baby. But hey, I'll look like a pulp too._ **

**Screw off. And no, you won't. Yours fades off after awhile.**

**_Haha sorry, I keep forgetting._ **

Keith slips on his old running shoes without stretching his stitches. After he places them on, he pants for a couple of seconds then uses the couch to stand up. His legs and arms shake the whole way, but eventually, he’s heavily leaning on the couch, standing up by himself.

“Keith! Look at you! You’re standing! Who’s a big boy?!” Shiro mocks him, walking up to Keith with his arm out, Keith grumbles and holds onto Shiro’s arm like a lifeline.

They slowly shuffle around until Keith can walk by himself.

“You’d think after getting hurt above the waist that your legs would be fine.”

“Shut up Shiro.”

“Do you want a walker? I can ask my next-door neighbor if we can borrow her’s.”

“Oh my god, kill me now.” Keith shuffles out the front door and starts to stumble to the car. Shiro follows behind him laughing the whole way.

The drive was mostly quiet except for the soft music playing, Keith brought out the red pen he’d stuffed in his jacket and randomly starts doodling things they pass on the drive.

**_Oooo is that a cactus?_ **

**Yeah**

**_That’s a nice old lady_ **

**Wow. That’s supposed to be a kid.**

**_It’s not my fault you suck at doodling!_ **

**Like you could do any better.**

**_I soooo could! I’ve had lots of practice with my nieces and nephews!_ **

**Huh.**

**_Why did you write it like that? It took forever for you to write out three letters and a period_ **

**Shut up.**

**_I’m not talking idiot ;)_ **

**You really do write like you’re messaging me.**

**_Nice change in subject_ **

**I really dislike you.**

**_Love ya too soulmate_ **

“What are you smiling about?” Shiro stares at Keith, nudging him with his hand. Keith flinches, letting go of the pen and watching as it falls to the floor. He starts rubbing his writing away, watching them slowly disappear under his thumb.

“Nothing anymore,” Keith grumbles and tries to pick the pen up with little success. Eventually, he gives up, he groans and huffs at Shiro when he offers his help.

The Garrison wasn’t anything Keith had thought it to be, instead of a school looking building with other buildings off to the side for other classes, it was all one building with a launch pad and runway about one hundred yards out. Keith watches as three jets take off, probably practice or training take-off on the runway.

“Like what you see?” Shiro smiles as Keith presses his hand against the window, they both watch the building get bigger every second.

“Yeah, do you know how long it took them to build this? What about the runway? Do they build their own jets? Are they creating their planes with new designs or given ones? What type of engine are those jets using?” Keith places his head against the window and watches as another three jets take off.

“Kiddo, you’re gonna have to figure that all out on your own.” Shiro smiles and parks the car. Keith jumps out the door, stumbling his way to the front of the building. Shiro follows close behind, watching as passersby stare at Keith’s beaten state. They walk through the front doors and Shiro is greeted by anyone who passes by, while Keith glares at anyone who walks even a step closer to him.

Shiro guides Keith into an area where one of the administrators, who had seen him after the simulation, talked to them about the different things they’d be expecting from Keith and what classes he’ll be taking. They discuss the importance of passing tests to be selected in different spots for future employment after graduation. Keith and Shiro sign some papers then all of a sudden everything clicks in Keith’s head. He’s finally going to be able to fly. He’ll finally be able to see the stars. He’ll be free.

“The school year will start in two weeks. We’ll prepare rooms and uniforms for each of the students, including you, and your set schedule will be provided on the first day.” Keith nods his head and Shiro pats his shoulder beaming.

Keith feels as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders like he had been stuck underwater and is finally able to breathe.

Their meeting ends around noon so Shiro decides to give him a little tour of everything and to show him his office. They see the testing areas, each room containing something new and interesting. They tour the flight simulator rooms and the exercise room. They watch as workers clean and fix the different planes, there are even some students messing around with the cleaning supplies and getting yelled at by their instructor. Keith examines everything like it’ll be his last time seeing it.

Shiro brings him into a medium-sized room with multiple desks and a hologram projector at the front of the room, Keith walks around ending up at the teacher’s desk.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could teach.” Keith jokes, nudging Shiro and pointing at the plaque on the desk.

Shiro shrugs and leans against the desk. “Well, you would if you had paid any attention to the administrators when they were presenting each of the teachers and classes.”

Keith rolls his eyes and starts to head out of the classroom when a body bumps into him. The person lands on the ground and Keith winces at the pain starting to stab at his stitches.

“Ouch, sorry my man. I didn’t see you but Even if there wasn’t any gravity on earth, I would still fall for you!.” The person laughs and gets up from the floor. He holds out his hand and Keith stares at it. Keith could feel his blood rushing to his face, his ears and face burning.

Shiro swoops in and shakes the boy’s hand. “Hi, I’m Shiro.” The boy gawks and stares at his hand then at Shiro.

“Woah, wait, like Takashi Shirogane?! Like the Garrison legend?!” The boy stumbles with his words, a light pink dusting his cheeks.

“Haha yeah, but I don’t really see myself as a legend per se.” Shiro awkwardly laughs and nods his head at the boy.

“Oh! Sorry! I’m Lance Mcclain. I’m here with my sister Veronica. She told me her office was down here, but I guess I picked the wrong room.” Lance smiles and gestures at Shiro and Keith.

Shiro nods his head and points at the door across the hallway and down two doors. “Her office is right there, but it was nice meeting you, Lance.” Keith smiles at Lance and starts walking away with Shiro, Lance grins at him and waves.

As Shiro drives them home, Keith could feel the question coming before Shiro even opened his mouth.

“Sooo, that Lance kid-” 

“Stop. Stop right now and I won’t complain about your cooking anymore.” Keith cuts Shiro off before his embarrassment goes through the roof. Shiro chuckles and shakes his head.

“Fine. But that means anything and everything I make. Even burnt stuff.”

“Oh, so you mean everything you make?” Keith smirks but it drops off his face, realizing his mistake. “Wait I didn’t mean that.” Keith tries backtracking and Shiro isn’t having any of it.

“I think Lance is going to be the same year as you, he also smiled at you. I think he even flirted with you.” Shiro smiles but it definitely isn’t a nice one.

Keith stays silent for the rest of the ride to the apartment.

_Soulmateeeee I met someone sooo good looking_

**And I want to know why?**

_Don’t worry I still love you (you're the only one for me)_

_and I can bear with your broody ways_

**Shut up. I don’t brood.**

_I’m not talking and yes you do_

**Knock it off, I don’t**

_If you say so._

**I thought we weren't talking, and why were you mentioning another person anyways?**

_Subject changing againnnnn. I just thought he looked cute, but sadly he almost has a mullet._

**And that matters why?**

_I dunno, I just don’t like them._

**Sure**.

_I feel like you’re judging me._

**How would you know?**

_I can feel it with how slow you write!!!!_

**You really do write like you’re messaging me**

_I am going to murder you_

**Awe didn’t you say you loved me earlier?**

_I’m done. You’re mocking me._

**Wow, great observation.**

_I’m going to go eat so bye_

**Bye soulmate.**

_AHHHH YOU FINALLY CALLED ME SOULMATE_

**I thought you were leaving.**

_BUT STILL!!!_

_Oh, wait I have a question_

**I thought you were going to eat though?**

_Why haven’t we told each other our names?_

Keith reads the sentence over and over, his chest feels tight and his hands start shaking.

**Because you wouldn’t like the real me.**

_But we’re literally soulmates_

**It doesn’t matter**

_YES IT DOES!!! We could literally be in the same state and not even know it!_

**stop**

_We could’ve already met each other and not even know it!_

**we will, everyone else says that your words glow or something like that**

_But what if we don’t see it?!_

**You should go eat or you'll complain about me distracting you.**

_Would not!!! AND YOU'RE SUBJECT CHANGING SUCKS!!!!_

Keith stops looking at his arm and waits until Shiro parks the car to show him the conversation. Shiro reads through it, smiling through the beginning then it disappearing as the conversation goes on.

“You could just tell him that your past is bad. He already knows that you would get bullied and people didn’t like you.” Shiro tries reasoning with him. Keith shakes his head and looks down at his arm.

“I don’t want him to be like everyone else, I don’t want him to hate me or hurt me as everyone else did. I don’t want him to leave me like Dad, Mom, and Suzan did. And I don’t want things to turn out as they did with Mack.” Keith sniffs and feels his eyes beginning to water. He quickly blinks the tears away and wipes at his cheeks just in case.

“I don’t think he would ever do that kiddo. I think he’d be the one helping you through your nightmares and doesn’t leave your side.” Keith shakes his head and gets out of the car. Shiro gets out too and stays beside Keith as they walk into the apartment.

“Go ahead and take a nap. I’ll get dinner ready and I’ll wake you up when it’s time. You just gotta be patient with these things, they’ll always turn out for the better. Remember patience yields focus.” Keith nods his head and lays down on the couch, looking at his arm before falling asleep.

**_I’m sorry._ **

* * *

Keith wakes up to a pot crashing to the floor and Shiro gasping.

"What is wrong with you Shiro? I thought you said you'd wake me up, not wake up the whole neighborhood." Keith groans and walks into the kitchen. There are three plates at the table and Shiro is swapping spit with someone. Oh wait, that's Adam. Keith grimaces taking his plate and leaves to the couch.

Disgusting. Keith hears them whispering and giggling about something, to which Keith rolls his eyes. "I'd rather not hear your lips smacking every five seconds, Shiro."

"Shut up, Keith!" Shiro yells back and marches out the door with Adam stumbling behind him, hand in hand.

Keith finishes his food and looks at his arm. There’s more blue writing on his arm before he fell asleep.

**_I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to ask and I just really want to get to know you. I’m sorry for being pushy when you were adamant about not wanting to. But maybe you need to change too, I can't bend my back just for you to push me away any moment you want to._ **

**_I mean, I forgive you but it' s still not okay. Anyways, I was thinking maybe we can tell each other different things about ourselves? Then maybe in the future, we can introduce our names? That way we aren't complete strangers._ **

**I think that is a good idea. Is it like 20 questions? Or how do you want to do it?**

**They immediately answer back.**

**_I was thinking more about us doing something like three questions a day thing? If that's okay with you?_ **

**Yeah. That sounds great.**

**_Okay sounds good :))))_**

**It seriously does feel like you're messaging me though.**

**_OH MY GOD STOP! I GET IT_ **

**Haha okay. Sorry.**

**_At least I'm not the one writing periods after every sentence I write_ **

**Isn't that how you're supposed to make a sentence?**

**_You're no fun_ **

Keith laughs and watches as Adam and Shiro stumble back into the house, Shiro looking upset and Adam beaming.

"Wait isn't Shiro suppose to be the one smiling?" Keith cackles, Shiro's frown only deepens and tries hitting Keith, only to be stopped by Adam.

"No. Shiro you can't beat up the weak." Shiro laughs at that, eventually causing Adam and Keith to laugh too.

"Woah! It's super late, time to go to bed!" Adam starts pushing Shiro to their bedroom and Keith watches them leave, not willing to call them old and tell them it's only 8 pm.

**Night Soulmate.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man I really tried making this one long but I could feel myself burning out trying to search for the right words and where I was adding things. Then I had to change a bit from fighting that went on and on to just a couple sentences... cause it was just getting awkward... It still is awkward though haha. But anywayyys I'm gonna go sleep now. Merry Christmas!!!


	4. School and Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith goes to the Garrison and remembers things with his soulmate. Some tears are shed and anxiety sort of takes over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is soooo late!!! I was fixing mistakes from the last chapter and my family decided to have people over this whole week and so I couldn't write anything because of the little cousins... :(( But! This one is done sooo enjoy!

School is starting tomorrow and Keith can’t calm his nerves… Well mostly Shiro’s, he hasn’t stopped pacing around the house gathering school supplies.

“You know, Shiro, I’m not going to be using any of that. Remember what the administrator guy said? The Garrison is providing everything except for personal belongings.” Keith shakes his head and starts going through the giant pile Shiro made.

“What’s this? It’s not even mine, Shiro!” Keith pulls out a pair of boxers and waves them in front of Shiro’s face. Shiro laughs and snatches them out of Keith’s hand.

“I forgot I put those in there.”

“What do you mean?! You put them in there on purpose!?” Keith shrieks and starts going through the pile in case there was more things. He finds a snow globe and a pack of mints randomly in the pile. “Are you trying to tell me my breath stinks or what?”

Shiro frowns and places them in his pocket. “I’m not answering that.”

Keith glares at him and throws a pair of socks. The socks hit Shiro in the face, he blinks then throws the socks back at Keith. They start throwing clothes and other small objects at each other until Shiro looks at his communicator and sees the time.

“Shoot, come on and help me clean all of this up. We need to get your stuff packed up before tomorrow.” Shiro starts picking up while Keith just stares at him. “Come on, kiddo. I can’t bare to think I even made this mess.” Shiro grabs an armful of things and starts walking away.

“Shiro? Do you not want me to go?” Keith stares at Shiro and he suddenly stops everything, walking, breathing, even holding the miscellaneous objects in his arms. Everything drops to the ground, startling Keith, Shiro almost looks statue-like. “Wait, Shiro that was a joke. I was joking.”

Keith lets out a small laugh but slowly tapers off when Shiro still doesn’t move.

“Keith, what if you’re still bullied? Am I a good enough guardian to take care of you?” Keith shakes his head and walks up to Shiro slowly. Shiro turns to look at him, his eyes are wide and his face paler than usual.

“Shiro, you’re barely even twenty-years-old and you took in a sixteen-year-old when you aren’t married and Adam doesn’t even have his engagement ring yet, meaning you haven’t asked him yet... Shiro, you took care of me when others gave up, if that doesn’t scream guardian or caretaker or brother, then I don’t know what does. And plus, you’ll be teaching there. So if I need your help, I’ll come to you.” Keith hugs Shiro tightly, clenching his fists into Shiro’s shirt.

Shiro laughs and hugs him back, they let go and go back to picking up the massive pile back up. Shiro picks up the objects he had dropped on the floor while Keith separated the bigger pile into small individual piles.

Keith finds more random objects and when Shiro comes back into the room for more things, they laugh and talk about how Keith would use them. One of the objects being a lemon squeezer, they laughed for almost an hour when Keith picked it up and sent a questioning look to Shiro.

Keith could feel the worry and anxiety setting in that night, after dinner was finished and Keith was getting ready for bed.

**Hey soulmate?**

**_Yessss soulmatey???_ **

**Nevermind.**

**_Noooooo!!! Tell meeee_ **

**I’m just feeling anxious for tomorrow.**

**_OH YEAH! Isn’t it your first day tomorrow?!_ **

**Yeah.**

**_It’s mine too! We can write to each other and go through it together!_ **

**Can we do that question thing?**

**_Yeah! Of course we can!_ **

**What do you want to be when you’re older?**

**_ASTRONAUT_ **

**Really? Why?**

**_I wanna see the stars and everything out there, what’s yours?_ **

**I want to be a pilot, I want to be free from the ground and gravity.**

**_Wow getting all fancy in here_ **

**Not really. My brother/guardian is a really good pilot, so I want to be like him.**

**_Oh, so it’s for you and for him? That’s super cool_ **

**I guess so.**

**_What’s your favorite food?_ **

**Oh, um, I dunno. I liked the ramen that would come in the cups,**

**my brother makes them a lot for lunch and dinner.**

**_Huh!? That’s not real food!_ **

**Oh yeah!? Then what’s yours?!**

**_My mama’s garlic knots! That’s what actual food is!!_ **

**good for you then**

**_What’s wrong_ **

**Nothing**

**_No seriously, what’s wrong?_ **

**stop asking**

Keith walks over to the window in his room and slides it open, a gush of warm wind passes through the screen and makes Keith’s hair sway. His eyes water up and they silently slide down his face. He hiccups and tries stifling the noises coming out of him with his hand, but they just get louder.

Keith watches as a couple and their little ones get home, the father carries one of the children into the house and the mother helps the other two out of the car. One of the kids say something and the mother laughs. Keith’s tears are falling harder and his chest is getting tighter and tighter as he watches the family.

Shiro knocks on the door. “Hey kiddo, you good in there?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. See ya’ in the morning.” Keith’s voice wobbles and cracks in the middle. If Shiro heard him, he didn’t say anything.

“Okay, get some rest Keith.” Keith hears Shiro walk away and let’s out a sob between his fingers. He lies down in his bed and stares as the blue words slowly disappear. The other side being erased and confused, on his side still there and complete and utter loneliness. Keith stumbles to his bed and buries himself into his blankets and pillow. He glances at his arm and 

**_I don’t know how I upset you but I’m sorry. You need to tell me what’s wrong_ _or I can’t help you. This isn’t some one way relationship._ **

**I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be taking things out on you and I’m sorry if I upset you too. I’m going through some stuff but I’ll tell you that stuff later.**

**_:) I’ll hold you up on that,_ _Ready for tomorrow?_ **

**I hope so.**

**_Haha you’re so cute. TTYL?_ **

**What does that mean?**

**_Talk to you later_ **

**Oh okay. Bye**

**_No! wait! it means talk to you later!_ **

**Oh, um, sure.**

**_Okay, well, good night_ **

**Good night.**

Keith wipes at his eyes and feels a small smile come to his face.

* * *

“Keith! Get up! We’re going to be late!” Shiro runs into Keith’s room and shakes his arms, Keith blinks his eyes awake slowly. “Haha your hair makes you look like a cat.” 

Keith pats his hair down and grabs the hairbrush at the edge of his table. “Shiro we still have another hour until everything starts.” Keith yanks the brush through his hair, the ends curling near the nape of his neck. 

“Keith! Come on!” Shiro moves through Keith’s room, tossing clothes on his bed and placing his shoes in front of him. Keith grumbles and pulls the white t-shirt on then slipping the grey sweatpants on. Shiro rushes out and Keith hears objects move around or drop to the ground.

Keith slips the red, black, and white boots on and picks up his red jacket off the ground. “Shiro! Can I eat something or do you want me to starve? And we still have another hour!” Shiro bumps into Keith as Keith walks out of his room into the hallway.

“You’re such a sass. Knock it off or next time I’ll make you starve.” Shiro hands him a bagel and a protein bar. Shiro pulls him to the front room and runs around the room looking for something.

“Man, you’re mean. Oh and your keys are on the kitchen table, behind the fruit bowl.” Keith shakes his head, speaking to Shiro’s back. Shiro hits the wall with his shoulder in his haste to get through the opening of the kitchen. Shiro nods his head while coming out, fumbling with the keys to find the front door’s key. Keith follows him out the door in a slow shuffle and walks down the stairs as Shiro locks the door. Keith gets to the passenger side of the car while Shiro rushes to the driver’s side, unlocking the doors with both of them jumping in.

**_I have never been so terrified of going to a new school_ **

**Oh yeah? What about ninth grade?**

**_Come on! I thought we said to never bring it up!_ **

**No, you said I can’t bring it up. I never agreed to it.**

**_I at least promised never to mention the fake kitten tattoo_ **

**_you put on your bicep in seventh grade_ **

**At least I didn’t flirt with a teacher and get detention on the first day.**

**_You’re mean. I thought she was a ninth-grader too and I was trying to be nice_ **

**By flirting?**

**_You know, just cause you make fun of me doesn’t mean I’ll stop doing it_ **

**Flirting with teachers?**

**_Ew no. Well, accidentally=yes and on purpose=no._ **

**You’re weird.**

**_And you’re a dick!_ **

“You ready?” Keith looks up from his arm to Shiro.

“No, not really. I’m excited for the classes though.” Shiro nods his head, staring out the window at the road. He sighs after a couple of minutes and shakes his head.

“If anyone ever gives you any trouble, just come to me. Okay?” Keith dips his head down and then looks up to Shiro.

“Do you think I’ll ever make friends?” Shiro stares at him while the tears start welling up in Keith’s eyes. “Cause I know I want to, but what if they’re like all the others?”

Shiro pulls into the Garrison and parks before speaking. “Keith, I think you will find the best friends here. Or you’ll meet some of the greatest people who will change your life. You just have to let them in, they won’t stay if you block them out.”

People pass by, not paying them any attention, a couple looks at them but keeps walking. A woman looks at Keith, shakes her head and walks away.

“But what if they hurt me?” Keith rubs his eyes with his hands and sniffs. He looks at Shiro’s sad eyes, they have tears falling too. Keith feels himself closing in, his arms wrapping around his abdomen and his legs coming up. He feels like he’s sobbing but it doesn’t click until Shiro’s arms wrap around him. It feels awkward being held in someone’s arms and bend over the gear shift box. Keith’s nails start biting into his arm and making small crescents, but Shiro pulls Keith’s hands away and holds them in his.

“Then I will be there. Patience yields focus, Keith. I’ve told you that so many times, and I think I’ve mostly been right every single time.” Keith nods his head, his breath hiccups and his cheeks start stinging with the drying tears.

“You’re right. I’m just so afraid, Shiro.” Shiro smiles and lets go of Keith’s hands. Keith watches as Shiro reaches into the back and pulls out a small black back. He hands the bag to Keith and pats his shoulder.

“I was going to wait until the weekend but I feel like you need them now.” Keith pulls out a rectangular box and takes the lid off.

“Shiro, are these?” Shiro nods his head and laughs. Keith pulls a set of keys out, there are three keys on the ring. 

“The smaller one goes to my office, the blue one goes to the front door of the apartment, the large one goes to this car and this one,” Shiro pulls out a key from his pocket and places it in Keith’s hand, “goes to a motorcycle behind the apartment building.” Keith looks up at Shiro.

“Wait, do you mean- You- Do you mean it’s mine?” Keith widens his eyes as Shiro smiles and closes Keith’s hand.

“Come on, we’re already going to be late.” Keith glares at Shiro and points at the time on the dashboard.

“We still have fifteen minutes before they even get anything ready Shiro. The greeting orientation thing is in twenty minutes and the material pickup is in ten.” Shiro laughs and pulls out a pamphlet out of nowhere.

“I’m a teacher, Keith. I can’t not be there early, and I need your help setting some stuff up.” Keith groans and gets out of the car.

* * *

_**I can literally feel everyone’s anxiety. Soulmate, I think the person next to me wet their pants** _

**Gross, I didn’t need to know that.**

**_I didn’t either but here we are!_ **

**Do you have an orientation too?**

**_Yeah but we have to get rooms and stuff before_ **

**I think I’m getting mine after.**

**_Oh! You have rooms too?_ **

**Yeah, it’s easier to be on the grounds than having to travel back and forth.**

**But on Saturdays, I’m going to my brother/friend’s house.**

**_Oh that’s cool I wish I could go home every week_ **

**Do you live far away from your school?**

**_Yeah, like 2170 miles away_ **

**Oh. I’m sorry.**

**_It’s okay, my sister is a teacher at my school_ **

**That’s good.**

“Keith, they’re giving your room numbers now and your uniforms.” Keith picks his head up and follows Shiro to one of the people handing stuff out. She smiles and hands him a pile with a key on top, Shiro looks at the key number and starts pulling him through several hallways.

Keith watches people as they pass by, a small boy points at something in a room and turns to his parents in awe. Shiro drags Keith to a door then gestures at it, Keith takes the key from his pile and opens the door.

“I don’t think you’ll get a roommate until second semester but I believe his name is James Griffin.” Shiro points to the other bed in the room.

“Why second semester?”

“You scored higher in the simulator so you’ll be taking higher classes. James scored around 100 points below you, so he won’t have any classes with you until next semester.” Keith nods his head and starts placing things away from his pile.

Shiro shows him different buttons and secrets around the room, Keith presses one of the buttons that Shiro had pointed out and the lights turn off. Mini projectors slide out of corners in the wall and turn on, stars and planets appear after a few minutes and Keith gasps.

Shiro starts naming a few and points to a planet on the farthest side of the room. “That is the star Icarus, it’s five billion light-years away. Do you want to know it’s official name?” Keith nods his head, watching the lights blink and slowly move.

“MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1, it takes nine billion years for its light to even reach the Earth.” Keith stumbles over to it and brings his hand up to it. The star suddenly expands and Keith watches it grow bigger. “Don’t worry bud, nothing’s happening to it. You just made the display bigger.”

Keith stares at the star, it flares and flickers, turning round and round. Keith walks around the star and goes to place his hand on it but his hand falls through. Shiro smiles and presses the button, everything disappears leaving Keith in the middle of the room with a hand partially up.

“You can see them in person someday, Keith. All you gotta do is try your hardest, and don’t laugh because it’s true.” Keith snorts and moves over to the bed.

“Shiro, you sound like a sports coach. I know I want to be a pilot, and I know you’re the best in your class. I want to be as great as you are and fly the skies as you do.” 

“I don’t want you to be me, kiddo. I want you to be better, I want to see you be the best you can ever be. But I don’t want you to block anyone out. Can you try, for me, to make some friends?” Shiro places his hand on Keith’s shoulder and gently shakes it.

“Yeah, I’ll try.” Shiro beams like a four-year-old and pulls Keith up into a hug.

“Okay, well we need to go to the orientation gathering or you won’t know any of the teachers.” Keith groans and lets go of Shiro. They leave with the lights automatically going out behind them.

* * *

**I’m so tired.**

**Keith lays down on his bed, his body sagging into the mattress.**

**_Sameeee, I don’t think I’ll make it into the next week cause I’m so tired_ **

**What’s your school like?**

**_Intense and wayyyy different from my school back home_ **

**Mine too. I’m just worried that I’m going to fail the first week.**

**_I don’t think you will, remember when you first wrote to me?_ **

**Not really, I don’t remember most of anything from when I was younger.**

**_You wrote your notes from your classes on your arm, because?_ **

**Because I didn’t have paper.**

**_Yeah and you helped me with my classes too, sooo I think_ **

**_you’ll be just fine. Plus, you have me to help you!_ **

**Thank you.**

Keith stares up at the ceiling and presses the button from before. Stars light up the room like the glow bugs from when he was younger...

  
  
  
  


* * *

“Keith! Come here, I want to show you something.” Keith’s dad cups his hand around something while Keith’s little four-year-old legs run as fast as they can to him. When he gets to his dad, Keith sits in front of his dad’s legs.

“What dadda? Oooh what’s that?” Keith’s dad opens his had and a small light moves around his palm then flies away.

“It’s called many names kid; firebug, glow bug, moon bug, luciérnaga, fire beetle, Hotaru, or even cucubanos. There are so many names to them but they’re all a little bug that lights up, a firefly.” Keith nods his head eagerly. His dad swipes his hand along the grass and thousands of lights fly from the grass. Keith giggles then stands up and runs through the yard, making more lights fill the air. All the lights in the sky made little Keith smile and reach his hand up to the sky.

Reaching and reaching to-

“Keith! Come out! I want to show you something.” Shiro’s voice breaks Keith out of the memory. Keith blinks up to the stars and turns them off, walking out the door to Shiro.

  
  


If Keith were to look down at his arm, he’d see a firefly drawn in blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> luciérnaga- firefly & cucubanos- firefly  
> Even though cucubanos aren't the same as fireflies, they are cousins to them. Sooo I'm sorry if I offend anyone by dismissing that fact or saying they're the same, but I know there is a difference and they're in the same family but not the same species.  
> My aunt who lived in Cuba for a couple years would tell my siblings and I stories about all the memories she had of everything. There was once where she was playing with some kids in a field and watched the fire beetles fly around. When she was going home, a stray dog followed her and left papers on her door step, like full on newspapers. She eventually adopted the stray and brought the stray to my house one Christmas and the dog ate all the bacon we had in our freezer. She was a cute dog though...


	5. A Different View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A different look to how things went, and a little more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, sorry this chapter is a day late... I tried doing 5,000 words but only got to 4704 words. But! I am happy I could use some of my Spanish I've learned from my parents in this chapter. I also wrote a huge part before remembering that Pidge doesn't really come in until her dad and brother leave so I had to delete it all :'( but she does come in... yeah. I also had to re-write a lot of wording because I wrote "and" way too much. I also bunched and chopped a lot of parts up... sooo there isn't much I guess to read... Anyways the Spanish translations are at the end notes... yeah.

“Oh no, Lance. Cuando tu mama vea el regero en esta casa, no te salva ni el medico chino.” Veronica laughs and runs to her room before Lance can throw his shoe at her.

Lance had been cleaning his room trying to find things he wanted to take to his room in the Garrison. He now was trying to clean everything back up before his mom came home.

“Cállate, Veronica. At least I’m actually trying to clean up, while you’re just making fun of me. This isn’t fair, I have to do all the packing when you mess around for the rest of the break.”

Veronica peeks her head through the door, watching Lance shove things into his bag.

“You shouldn’t be putting anything in your bag except for mementos or pictures, you know. Plus, I’m already at the Garrison, sooo it’d be kind of redundant.” Lance nods his head, taking a couple of things out then adds more things into the bag. He holds up multiple pictures up, placing two or three of them in. One of the pictures that he places in his bag is of his whole family before his youngest niece was born. Another picture is of his parents and him, they took the picture right before Lance got his acceptance letter to the Garrison’s program.

Lance sighs at the memory of their excitement and tears, it took about a year of both Lance and Veronica working their asses off, just to pay for the tuition. Lance had given up most of his summer to save up the extra money to help his mother while he was away.

A nice tingling feeling moves around his arm making him look down at it, seeing red letters form.

Lance grabs the blue pen off of his bedside table and lays on the ground, watching red writing slowly appear on his arm.

**Hey soulmate, why do you dislike mullets?**

**_Lmao that was not something I thought you’d ask. Long story short, I dated a girl who left me for a blond guy with a mullet._ **

**Oh, that’s sad.**

**_Not really, she was really bad for me and I thought things would change,_ ** **_but they didn’t._ **

**I’m sorry.**

**_You didn’t do anything wrong, so don’t apologize._ **

**~~I’m~~ _Don’t you even write it_**

**You wrote over my sentence**

**_Way to state the obvious, no apologizing._ **

**What if I do, do something?**

**_Okay smartass, fine, you can only do it if you harm me or hurt my feelings._ **

**Then I guess I’ll be saying it a lot.**

**_No you won’t_ **

“Mijo, get up off the floor. You need to finish packing.” Lance shoots up to see his mom smiling in the doorway watching him.

“Lo siento mama, I was just distracted.” Lance gets up off the ground, picking up the pictures he wasn’t going to use. His mother shakes her head then takes the pictures from him, watching him go through his room for other objects. She starts picking up things from his floor that he had left to decide if he wanted to take them or not.

“Mama! Stop it! I can clean by myself!” Lance moves in front of her trying to block her from moving. She laughs as she lifts her foot up. “No! Don’t! I’ll stop!” Lance jumps to his bed and grabs a pillow from his bed, trying to cover his head behind it. Lance’s mom throws her shoe at him, snorting as Lance bats the shoe away with the pillow and letting out a squawk.

“Silly boy, vas a llegar tarde si sigues así.” Lance nods his head then goes back to putting things in his suitcase. The older woman moves through his room, straightening some of the things Lance had pushed aside or moved in his haste to grab things.

Lance shows his mom the pictures he’s taking when Veronica comes into his room. 

“Hey, Lance. You ready? We have to be leaving soon if we’re going to want to be on time.” 

“Yeah, let’s go see dad first though.” She nods her head and their mom pats Lance’s head walking out of the room. Veronica watches her leave then looks at Lance, who’s still on the floor.

“She’s still hurting, Lance, and it also hurts that you’re leaving with me instead of staying.” Veronica helps him up and they walk out the door together.

They say their goodbyes to everyone; no one says anything when Lance hugs them longer. His mother is crying as they get in the car, and drive off.

_¡Asegúrate de escribir cuando puedas y los amo a los dos! -Mamá_

* * *

As they walk through the grass, Lance stares at each of the names. Most of them are family or pets, there’s maybe four or five who were really close family friends, but they’re off to the side. Each of the headstones are like branches, the “roots” are Lance’s great great grandparents. The branches and leaves are each of the family members along with their children.

They had placed their dad’s headstone next to Lance’s younger sisters the year before. Lance’s dad died of stage 2 leukemia while Lance was living with his auntie for the summer. The funeral was probably the hardest point in Lance’s life. His mother had shut herself away from everyone for almost three weeks. She wrote on her arms every day waiting for an answer from Lance’s dad. Not one was answered.

It was the same for his little sister’s death too, she died at age six. They would all call her little Maria because she was so small compared to her twin Mateo.

Lance had found out the hard way that having children with your soulmate makes a bond with every child you have. On your right arm is any connections you have with your children, the rest of your body is to your soulmate. It was specifically for your immediate family, once both of the parents passed away, the bond would be cut.

Lance’s mother would write things too each of her children daily, like little reminders or their chores for the day. When little Maria passed away, Lance’s mother had tried writing to her. Over and over, she begged for Maria’s answer but stopped after the funeral.

No one blamed Lance for what happened, but he knew it was his fault for what happened. Maria asked Lance to play with her and the neighbors dog in the front yard but Lance had said no, watching them play from the porch while he texted a girl from school. The toy Maria and the dog had been playing with, had been thrown into the street while they were tossing it around. Maria had ran into the street. She was taught to look both ways, but she was hit by a passing car even with Lance reminding her.

Lance was watching them from the porch when it had happened. He was the first to get to her and the last to say goodbye.

Lance and Veronica sit in front of the graves, placing new flowers in the vase next to them.

“Buenos dias, Padre y Maria. Queríamos despedirnos antes de irnos. Nos iremos por un tiempo, pero volveremos pronto. Verónica va a enseñar a algunos niños, y yo voy a volar. Como esos pájaros que vimos en la playa, ¿recuerdas a los pájaros, María?” Lance sniffs, tearing up. Veronica starts talking then, she’s crying too but isn’t stopping. She chokes on her words a few times, when she’s done they say goodbye. As they’re getting in the car, Veronica places her hand on Lance’s shoulder and smiles.

She starts up the old car, staring out at the road as they drive away, while Lance watches the graveyard get smaller and smaller.

* * *

The drive was short but the flight was longer than Lance thought it was. Veronica was pointing everything out as they drove to the Garrison. After she had finished, Lance told her everything she missed in Cuba while she was a student then a teacher. As Veronica pulled into the Garrison, three jets took off into the sky.

“Those are some of the planes you’ll be flying if you make it into fighter class.” Lance nods his head, still staring out the window.

Veronica takes him through the whole building, “I need to pick up some things before we can go to my office, do you want to come with me?” Lance shakes his head no.

“I think I’ll explore a bit, I’ll meet you at your office.” She nods her head, walking away down the long hallway.

* * *

Lance is lost. Completely and utterly lost.

He turned a corner at one point and went down a stairway which somehow led out to a long hallway connecting to another long hallway.

Lance came to a hallway with doors. He opens one of the doors, which everything in it looked like a classroom. Above the rooms were last names, Lance knows most of them from Veronica whining about them and from the posters or enlistment videos they show every year before movies, graduations, t.v. show ads, even seeing them on news stations.

As Lance walks down the hallway he watches each door, he stumbles upon his role model’s door.

Takashi Shirogane, youngest pilot in history. His skill for having an unnatural ability for flying was legendary. He was the main person to go to schools, recruiting students for the Garrison.

Lance already had plans to go to the Garrison after his older sister was accepted. But when Shiro came to his school and watched everyone, he had come to Lance; talking about how he was excited to possibly have Lance in his class. It felt like a dream, the possibility of being in the Takashi Shirogane’s classroom.

Lance started to turn away when the door opened and a raven-haired boy stumbled out, falling into Lance.

* * *

**I don’t want to talk about it anymore.**

Lance stares at the sentence like it grew vines or eyes.

**_Why not?!_ **

There wasn’t any answer for awhile, Lance felt like he should stop waiting for his soulmate to answer and just respond himself. 

Hours went by but nothing was showing up.

“Lance! Dinner’s ready and I’m not waiting for you!” Lance goes to eat, still staring at his arm.

“Is something wrong?” Lance nods his head, showing Veronica the conversation. She shakes her head, pointing to one of Lance’s lines.

“You shouldn’t force someone to tell you their problems, you know this Lanceeee.” She drags his name out and slaps his arm repeatedly. Lance sighs around a mouthful of food. There’s silence for a couple of minutes before Veronica realizes that Lance isn’t going to talk. Lance finishes his food then takes his dishes to the kitchen sink.

“Lance, at least he’s trying now, remember when he didn’t answer with anything except for maybe one word or bruises? The poor kid is probably trying his hardest to be your kind of soulmate, are you being his?” Lance looks at his arm, his right hand holds a blue pen hovering over his left arm. He shifts around on his feet before finally writing words.

“Try telling him you’ll be there for him if he needs you, apologize for asking too many questions too. Don’t force change little bro.” Lance nods his head and continues writing.

**_I’m sorry._ _It wasn’t my place to ask and I just really want to get to know you. I’m sorry for being pushy when you were adamant about not wanting to. But maybe you need to change too, I can't bend my back just for you to push me away any moment you want to. And I won’t force you to tell me anything, anymore._**

“Man, you and your soulmate are having more problems than I ever had with mine at sixteen.” Veronica chuckles taking her dishes to the sink. She walks out of the room then a few minutes later walks back in with a set of cards.

**_I forgive you but it's not okay, I was thinking maybe we can tell each other different things about ourselves? Then maybe in the future, we can introduce our names? That way, we aren't complete strangers when we meet_ **

“I don’t know what I’m doing Ver, sometimes we’re laughing, having fun like we usually do, and then he pushes me away or gets angry with me.” Veronica pulls him to sit at the table, shaking her head then placing a hand on his head.

“You’re still young, you barely have a brain yet-” “Hey!” Lance swats at her hand and laughs.

Veronica giggles, sitting at the table next to him. She pulls the cards out and starts shuffling them.

They play a couple of games before his soulmate answers back.

 **I think that is a good idea. Is it like 20 questions? Or how do you want to do it?**

Lance jumps across the table for his pen making Veronica squawk in surprise before shoving at his arm.

“You could’ve just asked me for it!” She grumbles, slumping into her seat.

**_I was thinking more about us doing something like three questions a day thing? If that's okay with you?_ **

They continue talking for a little longer until his soulmate says goodnight.

“Haha, you look like a puppy who was just given a bone.” Veronica cackles, slapping her hand against the table. Lance shoves at her arm and they go back to their game.

* * *

Lance went with Veronica everyday after that to the Garrison but there wasn’t any sign of the raven-haired boy or the Garrison legend.

Lance stares out the window as car after car show up, kids stumbling out of the car with their own packages. Veronica had made Lance wakes up early to get settled in before the other students came. He knows who he’s rooming with for both semesters and is pretty excited for who they are.

“Um, is this the right room?” A large samoan boy ambles through the door, his hair is mostly pulled back with a yellowish orange bandana, looking nervous.

“If your name is Tsuyoshi Garrett, then you’re in the right place!” Lance holds his hand out and the boy shakes it. “You look pretty strong, could you help me move that?” Lance points to a medium-sized box on the floor. The boy smiles, nodding his head eagerly.

“Woah, this is a lot heavier than it looks!” The boy easily picks it up moving it to where Lance had wanted it.

“Dios! That makes life sooo much easier for me.” Lance smiles, sitting on his bed on the top bunk. “ You know, I’m gonna call you Hunk. Is that okay?” The boy’s eyes widen and he smiles.

“Of course! Man, I was so stressed that you would be a scary or mean roommate, but you are way opposite!” Hunk laughs, sitting on the bottom bunk bed where he had placed his suitcase on when he walked in. There was still one bed left in their room but they weren’t assigned anyone else for they year. They talk about their families and classes they were assigned to; Hunk was going into the engineering program while Lance was going for the fighter class program. Most of their classes were the same though, the engineers needed to work and get used to the fighter class or the supply units for field work.

**_Do you have roommates too at your school? Cause I do and he’s fucking awesome!_ **

**Yeah, but mine doesn’t come until the second semester.**

**_Oooh fancy_ **

**Not really, it’s kinda annoying having to wait to see if my roommate is a prick or not.**

**_I guess that’s one way to look at things_ **

**Anyways, how’s your roommate?**

**_Oh man!! He’s the best! He’s fucking strong, almost looks like a tank_ **

**Your roommate looks like a metal machine?**

**_Nooooo, he looks beefy and really muscular_ **

**Oh, then why did you say he looked like a machine?**

**_Oh My God_ **

There is an upcoming mission that most of the cadets were talking about, it was a three man mission that would be going to Kerberos. Lance and Hunk suspects that the Garrison were going to automatically choose Takashi Shirogane but the listings we’re still unknown.

The mission is supposed to be for research purposes and to see what materials Kerberos was made up of. The information on it is going to be announced about two weeks into the program.

* * *

As the program starts and homework is given out, Lance can’t help but look for the raven-haired boy as much as he could. He knows that the boy must be in his year but might be in upper classes if he was with Takashi. He might be really good if he’s in the upper classes.

Every time Lance thought about it, the more he works harder on homework and tests.

The first semester went by fast and the new classes start, Lance thinks his head will fall off by the end of each class as he looks for the dark hair.

Then finally with the second set of four classes Lance has that day, he sees him.

Lance tries to get the courage to talk to him, but everytime he chickens out. The boy seems so out of Lance’s level and Lance thinks he is as the scoreboard shows their grades after every class.

Lance finds out that his name is Keith Kogane. Oh what a name. Lance starts singing his praises to Hunk after lights are out and doors are locked.

Sure, he was kind of annoyed that Keith never moves from first place on the scoreboard but it made Lance proud of him. The only thing Lance could think of to get Keith’s attention was to have better scores than him, some of his scores were better than Keith’s and it was the same with Keith’s to Lance’s.

People made it into a rivalry, throwing Lance off a bit; He doesn’t want it to be a rivalry between them, he just wants Keith to see him.

It is like he’s walking behind Keith, always a couple of steps away.

Lance walks to the scoreboard that day to watch as Keith’s score goes up by two and Lance’s goes up by seven. Lance is still behind Keith by fourteen points but that doesn’t really matter to him. 

Keith comes up behind him and pats him on the back, smiling, “Good job man, you almost beat me on the last test.” He walks away and disappears behind a corner.

Then out of nowhere, the Kerberos mission is announced.

Takashi Shirogane, Matthew Holt, and Dr. Samuel Holt are the ones to be manning the mission; everyone gives them their congratulations any time they see the three.

**_Are you excited for the launch?_ **

**Duh! Who wouldn’t be?**

**_I don’t know, maybe the actual team. I just thought I’d ask your opinion_ **

**Isn’t this Garrison’s first launch in a decade?**

**_I think so. It’s pretty cool._ **

Everyone’s excitement and nervousness for the launch cuts class short for several days afterwards.

The launch is repeating on the announcement screens in the hallways.

The mission starts off great but the transmission back to Earth stop coming after a month in.

A few weeks later, they release information that the whole crew is MIA.

People ask questions and the Garrison answers with phrases along the lines of there isn’t anything they could do or that no information has come in to help.

Lance tries looking for Keith but any class he had with him, but Keith isn’t there; Mr. Wright told Lance that Keith was taking a break after the news of Takashi going missing.

Keith’s name is gone from the scoreboard a week later.

* * *

“Lance, you need to eat. I’m not letting you ruin yourself just because Keith is gone. I can see your eye bags from a mile away.” Hunk pats Lance’s arm, placing a plate of food in front of him at the desk.

“I just don’t understand why he’s gone from the board, don’t you think they’d keep him up? He’s only on a break, well unless something happened to him.” Lance’s eyes go wide. “Oh my god! Hunk! What if they did something to him?!”

Hunk’s face morphs from disdain to terrified in a matter of seconds, he pushes the plate closer to Lance.

“Stop that thinking right now, Lance. They explore and research, they don’t murder someone who’s hurt because someone close to them goes MIA.” Hunk sighs, looking at the empty bed. Lance starts eating his food slowly but in big mouthfuls. “Class starts in seven minutes, we need to leave right now or we’ll be late. After class, you are going to sleep until the dinner bell and I am not negotiating.” Lance finishes his food then hands Hunk the plate. Hunk slides it off into the trash by the desk.

Lance blinks blearily at him then gets up; His bones creak and he groans, bending forward. Hunk places his hand under Lance’s elbow and the other at his back. They walk to their next class, Lance can barely keep his eyes open during class. Hunk notices poking his side any time his eyes slip shut; they got their homework then Hunk guides them back to their room.

“I’m not tired, I need to finish this paper before it’s due.” Hunk groans, forcing Lance onto his bed. “Woah buddy, wait until the second date.” Lance laughs tiredly and feels himself drifting off.

It isn’t the dinner bell that wakes Lance up, it’s a knock at the door. Lance sits up in bed, rubbing his eyes while Hunk bangs his head on the top of the bed grumbling as he goes to the door.

“Hello?” Hunk asks nervously.

At the door, stands a haughty short boy with light brown hair. Glasses sliding off his nose as though they aren’t big enough or hand-me-downs from someone else.

“Hi? Are you Tsyoshi and Lance? I’m suppose to take the extra bed.” Hunk stands there looking shocked.

“Um, yeah. Yeah! Sorry, come in. The bed is right there on the left.” The boy walks in with a small bag and a box of random wires and metal pieces.

Lance hops down off the bed holding his hand out to the boy. “Hi, I’m Lance Mcclain, you are?”

The boy stares at it before shifting the box to his hip then shaking Lance’s hand. “I’m Pidge Gunderson.” Hunk comes over and shakes their hand too.

“I’m Tsuyoshi Garrett, but you can call me Hunk.” Lance beams at his use of the nickname. Pidge nods his head setting everything from his arms on the empty bed.

“Dinner is in about ten minutes so you can head down with us if you want.” Hunk rubs the back of his neck nervously. Pidge seems to think about it before nodding his head.

“Sure, I need to put my stuff away first though.” Hunk smiles, nodding his head. Lance shuffles around before climbing back onto his bed. Hunk asks Pidge questions about them but Lance closes his eyes as their talking lulls him to sleep.

* * *

**_Soulmate? It’s been almost three weeks, are you there? Are you okay?_ **

Nothing.

* * *

**_If I did something wrong, could you tell me? I’m getting really worried_ **

Still nothing.

* * *

**_Dios, please write something. If you’re gone I won’t know if you’re dead or something. please_ **

Nothing over the next month, or the next, or the next...

* * *

Lance starts losing sleep.

First the Kerberos mission going MIA, then Keith disappears and then his soulmate going silent... Maybe even dead.

He’s seen it happen to his mother twice and it’s happened to other people he’s known. He just never thought it would happen to him. His mother said you could feel the world crushing you and every ounce of love you had for them turns into despair, when your soulmate dies. When her child died, it was like the world was tearing a piece of her heart out.

Lance didn’t feel like the world was crushing him, his love didn’t change or stop. He feels trapped. Lance feels like he was one of the stories where the person gets stuck under ice and dies.

Hunk tries getting him out of bed or away from his desk. Pidge even tries helping, but to no avail. Veronica steps in at one point and brought him to her apartment after classes ends every day. His mother was told and starts writing to him daily. His mother told him stories when he was in class and Hunk made him hot cocoa when he got to Veronica’s apartment. Veronica would wrap him in a blanket their abuelita made for him before he left.

Lance didn’t think anything would change, but everyone taking care of him and being there helps him. Veronica told him to keep trying and he eventually did.

**_I’m here_ _I love feeling you write_ _I miss talking to you_ _I miss seeing your sentences_**

**_I miss your presence in my life_ _Without you, I am lost_ _I want your questions and your random thoughts_**

**_I can’t feel anything when you’re not in my day_ _I want you back_ _I need you_ _I need to know you’re okay_**

**_Are you okay?_ _I can’t think of anything besides you_ _Where are you?_ _Are you hurt?_**

Lance writes before and after class. The pen to his arm used to be heavy and it would hurt to write, but after each sentence it felt lighter. His words made him feel better even if his soulmate didn’t answer. It felt like when he was younger, he was taught how to write younger than other kids he knew and would scribble words onto his arm with a red marker.

His soulmate use to draw little pictures on his arm or bruises or cuts would show up daily to Lance’s words. It would mostly be bruises though, Lance could feel the pain from them if he looked for them on his body. In the beginning or when he started paying attention, he thought his soulmate was really clumsy. As the bruises and cuts got worse, he knew his soulmate wasn’t clumsy anymore.

His mother cried when she saw a gash on his forehead at seven, though all he could feel was a pounding headache. Sometimes if he pulled his shirt up, his chest would be black and blue. Veronica would sometimes use her makeup to cover the bruises that showed outside of his shirt.

His soulmate started writing back at thirteen, sometimes with one worded answers and other times it would be full sentences. Lance would chalk up the attention, writing anything and everything over the moon.

Lance finishes his homework for that day when a soft tickling feeling runs through his arm, his head whips to his arm so fast he gets a kink in his neck.

**I’m okay now.**

Lance almost cries in relief. He immediately runs to Veronica, who’s lounging on the couch on her stomach.

“Ver! Look, look, look he’s back. He’s okay.” Tears fall from Lance’s eyes, Veronica sits up and brings him into her arms. She lets him go so he could get for his blue pen on the table.

“I feel like you have a million blue pens, I stepped on one last night when I was going to the bathroom.” Lance laughs, writing on his arm as Veronica pokes his side. Some of his tears hit his writing making it smudge and smear. "I'm not joking, I fucking saw my life flash before my eyes because of your damn pens laying everywhere."

Lance laughs, "Oooh, did I just hear you swear, Ver? And plus, you use the same pens to write to your soulmate too." She groans then hits him with a pillow.

**_Dios, I thought you were dead or something and started_ _thinking the worst when you never answered_ **

**I’m sorry.**

**_I don’t want you to apologize, I just want you to write back_ **

**Write back?**

**_Yes you dollophead! Write back no matter what happens._ ** **_I really did think you died and it terrified me!_ **

**I promise to write back next time**

**_Thank fucking god._ **

Lance could feel a small happiness through the words, he bets that his soulmate could feel his relief when his words showed up on their side.

Lance wipes at his eyes, he stares at the sentence that brought his soulmate back. “I’m okay now? Ver, do you think something happened to him?” She shrugs her shoulders and pats him on the back.

“I dunno, he might just be going through something.” Lance nods his head and continues writing to his soulmate for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Cuando tu mama vea el regero en esta casa, no te salva ni el medico chino.”-  
> “When your mom sees the mess in this house, not even the Chinese doctor will save you.”  
> Cállate- Shut up  
> Mijo- Son  
> vas a llegar tarde si sigues así- you're going to be late if you keep going like this  
> ¡Asegúrate de escribir cuando puedas y los amo a los dos! -Mamá= Make sure you write when you can and I love you both! -Mom  
> “Buenos dias, Padre y Maria. Queríamos despedirnos antes de irnos. Nos iremos por un tiempo, pero volveremos pronto. Verónica va a enseñar a algunos niños, y yo voy a volar. Como esos pájaros que vimos en la playa, ¿recuerdas a los pájaros, María?”- Good morning, Father and Maria. We wanted to say goodbye before we left. We'll be gone for a while, but we'll be back soon. Veronica's going to teach some kids, and I'm going to fly. Like those birds we saw on the beach, remember the birds, Maria?  
> Dios- God


	6. Disappear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Expulsion and whispers through the night are what guide Keith to disappear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um, warning! This chapter shows signs of past abuse and harassment, the writing is a bit off and I couldn't really write it in the way that I wanted because this is really behind schedule… I'm sooo sorry! I'm back in school and I am having difficulty doing school and working on the new chapters. I also have work which is kinda awful when they're trying to get you to work every minute of the day after your out of school for the day. I'm not trying to make excuses though, I am really trying to get these out as soon as I can. Anyways, hope you like this chapter!

Keith stares up at the ceiling.

Shiro and the rest of the Kerberos team were reported missing action during class. Adam and Keith weren’t even told first, they found out the same time as everyone else.

The stars on the ceiling and around the room remind him of better times, like when Shiro took him out to see the sky at night. Adam was so pissed, Keith thought his face couldn’t get anymore redder, at Shiro for taking them out in the middle of the night instead of just waking up early. Shiro only laughed it off and make them hot chocolate before heading to bed.

Keith hears his roommate James outside of the door and quickly presses the button on the wall beside his bed, shutting off any traces of the little lights. James comes in and place his heavy textbooks on the desk at the edge of his bed, grumbling something about a fucking tan lanky boy cutting him off when he was talking. He huffs and looks at Keith. “Did you even leave your bed to go to class? You’ve missed almost two weeks now.” James asks rolling his eyes, settling down into the seat at the desk.

Keith shakes his head and James sighs, he lifts his books and taking a couple of papers out from between them. He places them on the edge of Keith’s bed and sits at the desk.

“That’s your homework for Frustum’s class, the homework isn’t hard and there’s a test next week on it. Just so you know, Adam wants you to go see him later. He passed me in the hall looking like a zombie.” James chuckles, moving his books around before opening one of them and starts writing.

Keith drags himself out of the bed and shuffles around the room. James watches him in the corner of his eye, hand slowly reaching towards the datapad at the corner of his desk. Keith puts on his jacket as he’s walking out of the door and can’t help but notice other students he passes by staring at him and whisper. Keith rolls his eyes then glares at everyone he passes by. He sees a teacher about to come up to him but he quickly dives between a group of students and slips into a nearby room.

“Woah.” Keith turns around to find a domed-roof covered in stars and galaxies. Like in his room, the stars sway and fizzle from the projection machines. The fizzling making them look like they’re blinking at him. The stars change colors slightly and then there’s a whole new display of stars.

Something pokes Keith out of his stupor and makes him jump in surprise.

“Sorry, I just thought you’d want to know that you weren’t the only person in the room.” A thicker boy shies away from Keith as if he’d bite him.

Keith nods his head and takes a step more into the room then realizing that Adam was waiting for him.

“Oh, um, sorry. I, um, need to go meet someone.” The boy smiles and nods his head. Keith starts walking back out, looking back into the room full of stars.

\---

“He isn’t dead! Stop acting like he is!” Keith shoves away from Adam’s hug and steps back, curling his arms around his stomach. “He fucking said he’d come back, we talked to him on Wednesday and everything was fine and working great. Shiro couldn’t have just disappeared with millions of dollars worth of equipment and not say anything.”

Adam watches him before slumping into his seat at his desk.

“Iverson said-” “That’s bullshit and you know it.” Keith growls and starts stomping out of the classroom.

“Dammit, Keith, stop. What are you doing?” Adam starts to follow but stops when Keith whirls around with a sneer.

“To find out what really fucking happened.” Keith watches Adam deflate and shut down in front of him.

Keith huffs and goes back to Adam, who slowly sinks down to the floor on his knees sobbing. His eyes starting to get puffy and his nose dripping, his breath stuttering. Keith immediately stops and quickly goes back to Adam. He brings Adam into his arms and grips his shirt, making creases and wrinkles the harder he clenches.

“I can’t lose him and you too, Keith.” Adam sobs, his chest stuttering with the choked breathing.

“You won’t lose me.” Keith tightens the hug before releasing and tries to help Adam up. “You’re heavy. Are you eating Shiro’s stash again?” Adam laughs, wiping his face with his sleeve and punches Keith’s arm softly.

“Shut up, you dork.”

\---

The walk to Iverson’s office is stifling.

It feel like every step closer is getting heavier and feel more and more like lead.

Even if Adam is right next to him with a hand at the back of Keith’s neck, Keith feels like every pair of eyes in the school is on him. Sure, to them it looks like he’s in trouble or something is wrong with him. Why did they have to stare though? It’s already humiliating enough that Adam is guiding him like a mother cat and their kitten.

They walk through the hallway that Keith had spent so many nights in with Shiro, either talking or helping Shiro grade papers or even just eat together. His hands clench and it feels like his feet his the floor harder than they were earlier.   
If Adam notices the change he doesn’t say anything about it and keeps walking, Keith notices that even Adam changed when they started through the hall.

Adam looked more curled into himself, his hand and arm curled around Keith more and he was slouched over instead of his stick-straight posture. His eyebrows almost touching if they could and his mouth pulled downward. Keith feels like he probably looks the same and then tries thinking of what Shiro would do.

“Hey, remember when Shiro took me outside that one time?” Keith asking the first thing that comes to mind, Adam looks at Keith strangely and laughs.

“Which time? You both snuck out so many times that I’m starting to get white hairs from stressing.” Keith chuckles, nodding his head.

The hallways seem to brighten up as they keep talking, the once dim lighting and the claustrophobic feeling slowly disappearing as their feet move. Their laughter and words making the walls a whole new color and the ground softer under their feet. Keith watched the happiness come back to Adam, his posture slowly going back to it’s stick-likeness. His eyes shining with mirth and crinkling at the edges. Keith watches Adam’s face change completely, almost a one-eighty from before.

Keith wishes they didn’t get to Iverson’s office so fast, he wishes they could’ve stayed in that moment forever.

\---

 _CRACK_ is the sound Iverson’s nose makes after Keith punches him. Adam shoves him back into the chair as Iverson brings a hand to his nose and the other to the tissue box on his desk.

Keith sits with his eyes looking down at his lap at his hands. While Iverson, holding a wad of tissues to his bleeding nose, yells at Adam.

“Sir, I think-” Iverson cuts Adam off before he can argue. “No! I will not tolerate this behavior at this school. He is expelled from this point forward!” Keith shoots up from his chair and begins to speak but Iverson cuts him off too.

“Expelled! Yes, Mr. Wright! He will not be coming to this school anymore! Mr. Kogan I expect all your belongings and yourself off the premises by 0800 tomorrow. You are dismissed.” Iverson’s face is bright red with rage and his empty hand points to the door.

A tissue falls from the pile in his hand as the silence in the room begins.

Adam gently takes Keith’s arm and pulls him out the door. Keith stumbles behind him as his eyes fill up, one of his hands coming up to cover his mouth. A sob is pulled out of him and the sound that comes out makes Adam turn his head to look at him.

Adam leads them into his classroom, pulling Keith in, slamming the door and locking it. He grasps Keith in his arms and gently squeezes him when he cries harder.

“Hey, this only means you can stay with me at the apartment. Kiddo, this isn’t the end of the world.” Keith shakes his head and Adam only holds him tighter.

\---

**_Why are my knuckles bruised? Did you hit someone?_ **

Keith packs his things that night sniffing the whole time, ignoring the words. James doesn’t complain or say anything about it, helping him put things into Keith’s single suitcase. Keith mumbles little things about the room, even showing him the button on the wall.

“It’ll show you any star, system, or galaxy. You can tap on one and it brings it up. You can tap it twice and it’ll show the information and life spans they have. Or well what’s the closest guess they have.” James nods his head and pats Keith’s shoulder, closing the case for him.

“Thanks Keith, I’ll remember that.” Keith nods his head and picks the suitcase up, heading towards the door. “Hey, Keith. Take care of yourself, okay?” Keith stares at James before nodding his head again and walking out the door with his eyes trained to the ground. Adam is leaning against the wall waiting for him when Keith walks out.

“Ready?” Adam takes the case out of his hands, watching Keith’s face.

Keith sniffs, looking up to Adam.

“Yeah.”

**_Soulmate? Are you there? It's almost been three weeks-_ **

Keith covers his arm ignoring the rest of the words that continued to send tingles down his arm.

\---

A few weeks pass and Keith starts hearing small whispers.

 **Find me** **Help me** **Save me**

Keith is starting to go crazy from them, he’s even asked Adam if he hears them but was only answered with a stare and Adam asking him if he’s okay.

**_If I did something wrong, could you tell me? I'm getting worried_ **

Keith starts covering up the words by wearing long sleeved shirts or putting some type of wrap on his arm. The tingling and the whispers were starting to get to his head.

It goes on for weeks before Keith gives in.

**Adam,**

**I can’t keep doing the same thing every day and wait for you to come home.**

**I have to find Shiro and I know you can't help me without losing your job.**

**I don’t want you worrying about me while you’re teaching and have Iverson watching you.**

**I’m going to be gone for a while so don’t wait for me to come back.**

**I promise not to die, I’m just going to take care of some stuff.**

**Take care of yourself, -Keith**

Keith places the note under Adam’s glasses then slips out the door with only a bag of food, his jacket, and a radio he had stolen from the Garrision's communication room. The radio was open to all sources so he could hear anything and everything that was being transmitted from outerspace to the Garrison.

Keith quickly goes behind the apartment building to the bike Shiro got him and quickly gets on. 

The sun is just barely reaching over the horizon, the pinks and blues mixing together softly before reds and yellow come too, letting the sun finally peek up. The light slowly stretching over the land, casting a shadow behind Keith as he watches, and then without a moment to question what he was doing, Keith leaves without looking back.

\---

Keith finds the old shack his father had built for all the tools and equipment they used for the house and small projects. It was miles and miles away from where his kid memories remembered it, but that sort of was to be expected. The house was long gone from the fire. Keith can still feel the phantom heat of the fire going through his room, almost close enough to touch him.

He can still see the flickering and flowing of the fire climbing his walls and eating everything in his room like a lion eating a gazelle. 

The raven-haired boy can hear his father yelling his name and hear the whispering of “it’s going to be okay” over and over after getting taken out. 

He can still hear his father’s coughing at night, from the smoke in his lungs, in his aunties’ house. 

He can see the zig-zag lines going up and down and hear the slow beeping filling the silent room.

He can see his father’s usually bright smile and eyes crinkled eyes gone, his face neutral and cold.

Keith can see them lowering his body, in a box, into the ground. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, waiting for him to cry or to say something. He can see his auntie looking at him with disgust and hatred. He can hear her yelling at him for killing his dad. He can hear her and another person talking about fostering and her agreeing to it immediatly. Keith can see her house shrink into nothing and a new building slowly get bigger.

He can feel the hit to the head over and over again from the older boy. He can feel the mother slapping his face after he told her, he can hear the younger daughter come into his room to quiet his cries. He can feel her little arms around his neck and can still feel her small hands wipe his eyes.

He can hear the whispers from the other kids in the hallway, he can see them stare at him like an outcast.

The raven-haired boy can feel the leather seats of the car he rode to the new house. A wife and husband standing in front on their lawn waiting for him. The husband was nice but the wife was scary. Keith could still feel and see the burn marks from her blue cigars.

He could-

Keith shakes his head, opening the shed and taking out a hammer and nails. Thinking about the past doesn't change anything, Keith thought bitterly.

He finds the box his dad placed on the top shelf of the shed after getting Keith and the box out of the fire. His father had told him, when he was younger, that he’d get the box on his seventeenth birthday. A little late for that thought Keith bitterly. Keith opens the box and finds several pictures and an object wrapped in a cloth. There’s a paper at the bottom of the box with his name on it.

**Keith, happy birthday my baby. I wanted to give this to you myself**

**but I have to leave and I don’t know if I’ll ever come back home.**

**I have a bad past and if I got you and your father roped into it, I would never**

**forgive myself. Your father knows some of the things I’ve done but I won’t**

**let the same happen to you.**

**I’m sorry I can’t see you grow up but I hope you know I love you so much**

**and I want you to remember I left to protect you and your father.**

**I love you so much, my child. I hope someday I can see you.**

**Happy 17th birthday -Mom**

Keith wipes at his eyes and unwraps the object. A sleek metal knife glints in the sunlight as the cloth uncovers it. Keith runs his fingers over the purple symbols on it and the hilt of the blade. He places the box on a mattress at the back of the shed that he’d been sleeping on.

Keith finds a utility belt and slides the blade into a holder, clicking a button into place to hold the knife. He takes off the wrap on his arm and goes to rewrap it when he sees small writing, instead of the large flowy lettering there was small shaky writing.

Dios, please write something. If you’re gone I won’t know if you’re dead or something. please

Keith's stomach drops and he quickly wraps his arms up again before he can try writing back.

His soulmate didn't need to know what a disappointment he already was. They didn't need to know he ran, that he left the only person left close to him to try and find his brother. Keith shakes his head and walks out of the shed, grabbing wood beams and planks as he exits.

He takes the spare wood and some of the biggest pieces of wood he could find from the remains of the old house. He places everything by the shed and starts building.

It takes him a week to add on two walls to one of the sides of the shed. Adding onto the shed would be easier than to start from nothing.

Keith has to hunt for more wood from nearby towns that are almost a forty mile ride there and back. He’s lucky to find an abandoned saw mill in one of the towns and takes as much as he can before going back home. He makes the ride about seven times a day before he decides he has enough to finish.

And Keith does. He even tries to make a chair and a frame for a bed before going back to another town for more things.

After he fixes up as much as he can, Keith looks for the source of the whispering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um... Yeah. The end of this chapter is pretty lame to end it there but I've started the next chapter sooo yeah. I actually suffered from some of the abuse in this chapter but with family friends instead of family members. I have a couple burn marks on the outside of my calf when my friend's mom thought it'd be funny to put her cigarette out on my leg... fun. Um, I also was planning on Keith having a panic attack after spiraling but it didn't really make any sense in the context... ugh.


	7. Blazing Lights and Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith looks for stuff and thinks about small bits of his past. Someone shows up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was tough to write because I didn't have enough written and I have the minimum limit of my writing to 2000 words a chapter. Some stuff happened this week which I'll tell in the end notes, so yeah. Enjoy! Cause this chapter gets kinda sad and has sucky transitions.

Keith walks the vast blinding heat, sweat dripping down from his hair towards the back of his neck, stumbling a couple times when he doesn’t see clearly from the sweat dripping into his eyes.

_Where are you?_

Keith sighs and the whispers almost beg him to answer but he ignores them. The whispers sometimes change what they say, either to help him or to beg him to answer. It isn’t that Keith couldn’t answer his soulmate, he has a red pen in the small pack, it’s the thought of his soulmate stopping if he answered. He is happy to know that someone was worried for him but Keith is still terrified that they will leave him too. 

Sometimes, Keith is okay with being alone again. But he knows deep down that he isn’t. He doesn’t want to be alone anymore.

Almost like an itch you can't reach, a sneeze that doesn't come, a cough that doesn't release. Keith feels it at the back of his head, the base of his throat, in his chest. A deep throbbing in him that doesn't seem to go away even when he ignores it. When he was with Adam and Shiro, the ache wasn't there. Keith didn't feel the throbbing when he was with some of the families, well more like when he was with specific people in the family.

Like the seventh family he was with, they had a couple of foster children with them already so he was just another number to their list. Two of their foster children was Henry and Isabel, they were decidedly Keith's best friends before Isabel died in a kitchen fire at her boarding school a year after Keith was brought in. Henry and Isabel took down Keith's walls in a matter of days, they were closer to him than anyone had dared except for Adam and Shiro.

Henry didn't know his dad and his mother left him when he was ten. Isabel was left at six, but lived in the same neighborhood as Henry so they knew each other. Isabel had nightmares and so did Keith, so she thought it was best that they could sleep together. Henry slept in the bed with them so he could help them if they needed him.

They were each other's support lines, they knew each other like the backs of their hands and didn't fight unless it was bickering to joke around.

Isabel was given the opportunity to go to a boarding school in Washington, she didn't want to go at first but agreed when Keith and Henry told her how much they would talk so she'd never miss them. Oh how they were wrong.

They talked every night and Henry was the big brother of the other two, he was the one that took care of them and knew how to help them. Isabel was their relief, the one to get all of them out of their spirals, out of fights and out of trouble. Keith was the listener, he got Isabel to speak out more and gain confidence with just listening. Keith helped Henry talk his fears and his anger with his parents and Keith would reply with small sentences or understanding words if Henry left the silence go on for too long.

Henry and Keith were moved to different homes after her funeral because the foster parents thought it was in the best interests of everyone. But they were so wrong.

They had a fight when they were leaving, Keith blamed Henry and Henry blamed Keith. It wasn't either of their faults but they needed someone to hate, they disliked the fact that Isabel had listened to them and didn't stay. In the end, Henry cut any connections to Keith and anyone in the foster family.

The closed off and tired or tight feeling in his chest started back up after Henry shoved him away. It came and went with different families, but was never the same after Henry and Isabel.

The aching feeling goes away as Keith crouches, putting his bag on the ground in front of him. He takes out the water bottle from the small pack, hangs the bag back around his arm, taking small sips from the bottle.

The raven-haired boy chuckles as he remembers the lessons Garrison drilled into all of the cadets about taking care of themselves if they were stranded or lost, but Keith wasn’t lost. He never felt more at home, exploring the unknown.

Every few minutes the soft whispering would direct him or encourage him as he trekked along.

 **A few more steps.** **Turn a little more.** **Other hand.**

That last one was when he was rock climbing a large cliff. He had ignored the whispers and almost fell to his death, he really started listening after that. He could hear the whispers rumble in his head, almost like they were laughing.

Keith walks through the brush into a wide opening to the small cave in front of him. The whispers almost sound like they're echoing but as Keith walks through the tunnel they start getting louder.

**Find Me. Help me. Almost there**

As he walks through the tunnel, Keith sees blue inscriptions on the wall and little drawings of cats in different colors. A large black cat leads them in what looks like a bird’s V formation. There are other cats following after, a red cat and a green cat following after the black, followed by a blue cat following the red and a yellow cat following the green cat.

**Family.**

Keith quickly walks through a tunnel that drips water from the ceiling onto his face, the whispers quieting some, feeling his feet slow as he reaches a wide opening.

The whispers stop or well they didn’t stop, it was more like they synced together into one. The one which started humming and quietly spoke, **You found me**.

Keith’s mouth falls open and emotions just swirl in his stomach. He walks up and places a hand on the blue drawings on the walls.

“You mean you’re in here? I don’t see anything but cave markings, where are you?” Keith glances around the tunnel for anything different from an ordinary cave tunnel. There’s rumbling in his head before the whisper speaks again.

**Not yet, young one. Soon.**

Keith nods his head and shuffles his feet. “What are you? How are you in my head?” Keith mumbles curiously walking through the tunnel. He almost trips on a stone but catches himself with a hand to the wall. Under his hand is writing and pictures of stick figures and a blue lion robot thing.

**You’ll find out soon, child. Your fated will know and understand more. Answer them.**

“You mean my soulmate? You’re saying I’ll meet my soulmate soon?!” Keith running his hands on one of the blue markings. He hears the same rumbling in his head like the cliff.

**Not yet, small one.**

Keith huffs and keeps walking through the tunnel before turning to look at the lions on the wall again.

**Don’t worry child, it’ll happen one day.**

Keith nods his head and goes to step over a rock when the front of his foot catches on the top, making him fall to the ground. His hands get all cut up and rocks stick to parts of his hands.

Keith hisses in pain and his knees ache from the fall. exits the cavern. The humming in his head almost quieting out of existence, keeping a small trill every few minutes. There’s sometimes little murmurs as he’s walking or climbing down, reminding him or cautioning him where to go.

**_Are you hurt?_ **

Keith sighs at the tingling in his arm and waits for more to be written but isn’t surprised when nothing else is written.

**_Answer Him_ **

****Keith flinches and grabs the pen out of the pack. The pen cap falling from his hand and the nib almost touching his arm. A wave of encouragement and peace suddenly flows back and forth in his chest, lapping at the anxiety and fear that try to crumble him down.

**I’m okay now.**

He could feel the relief on the other side of his bond. His soulmate just writes and writes and writes. The feelings Keith feels are just over the sun, so full and so elated.

As Keith walks back the long distance to the shack, he writes back. The buzzing in his arm keeps him from stumbling and the small whisper of encouragement. The whisper of the lion would either direct him or warn him of something that would happen and Keith trusted that nothing would happen to him.

* * *

Keith walks up to the front of the shack and turns to watch the sun slip below the horizon. The orange and red in the sky flowing into a blue and purple then finally to a navy blue.

The lights in the sky coming out in full brightness. The blinking of lights made Keith think that he could hear bells. Soft ringing in his ears that have him stare up at the sky, a flow of clouds pass-by and drift so slowly it doesn’t look like they were ever moving.

Keith lays on the cracked sandy ground and just stares. The moon hides behind the clouds letting the stars glisten in the sky, peeking through the openings the clouds leave open. The soft breeze flowing and whipping bits of the sand up making little twirls throughout the flat area, a bit of the breeze playing with Keith’s shirt and sifting through his hair. The stars dance through the clouds and move across the sky, moving in and out of sight. The plateau behind him leaning to its side to show more of the sky behind him until all Keith sees is the sky and the stars. 

Keith stays watching the sky all through the night and watches as the sun starts coming over the mountains.

**_Did you watch the stars last night?_ **

Keith smiles and sees the tingling from his arm in the stars. Call him poetic and call him romantic, but he could feel everything through their bond. The joy of having Keith back to talk to him, to know he’s still there.

**I did.**

**_Did you see Canopus go red then Vega and Rigel change blue and yellow?_ **

**I watched every second.**

**_Lucky, I knocked out at 8:30_ **

**Oh really? I beat you again?**

**_Get over yourself, I had testing again and it’s been a couple of weeks_ **

**You had testing? I thought that was later in the month.**

**_Yeah, I got into a new program a couple of days later than everybody else_ **

**Oh.**

**_Yeah but it doesn’t matter anymore. The person that I wanted to be with_ **

**_isn’t here anymore._ **

**Oooo is it a girl?**

**_No, just someone I admired_ **

**I’m sorry.**

**_But don’t worry sunshine, you’re my only light I’m looking for_ **

**You’re such a flirt.**

**_Only for you, darling_ **

**Anywayyys! I’m gonna go back into town today to get more red pens**

**_Awwww! For me????_ **

**No, for my notes.**

**_You’re mean_ **

Keith laughs and gets up from his spot on the ground. He dusts off the sand on his back and on his legs, walking back to the front door of the shack.

* * *

A few days later, Keith stares at the radio and at the energy readings. The readings are off the charts directing back towards the Garrison. Well, more like the middle of their flight testing field. But that didn’t mean anything to Keith cause that mean he’d get more answers maybe to what the Blue lion was.

Keith quickly starts pulling on his jacket and grabs one of the mechanic bandanas from a shelf, running out to his hoverbike.

It hums to life while he jumps on, hitting the buttons to start the bike up and speeds away.

* * *

“Nope! No you- No no no. No, you don’t. I’m saving Shiro.” A tall tan lanky boy walks through the door’s opening and slides underneath Shiro’s other arm. A heavier set boy and a shorter boy steps in behind the Cuban boy.

Keith blanks and stares at him, blinking quickly. It’s Lance, the guy who met Keith and Shiro almost a year and four months ago. The Cuban boy who was right behind him in test scores for their beginning year and this year. The boy who Keith knew he was never good enough for because of his past. 

“Who are you?” Keith asks feigning ignorance. His arms are tingling, the tingling turns to buzzing, almost making Keith drop Shiro. Weird. Scary weird. But Keith shakes it off and blames it on exertion and adrenaline.

Lance’s peeved look changes to hurt then his jaw clenches and he turns his face to glare at Keith. “Who am I? Uh, the name’s Lance.”

Keith keeps up the blank look, squinting his eyes and cocking his head.

“I almost made you fall when you were coming out of Shiro’s class? We were in a couple classes together? I was always behind you in test scores? You literally patted my shoulder after one of the tests!” Lance signs, dropping his head then shakes it and starts pulling Shiro out of the lab. “Whatever, come on.”

Keith feels guilty, Lance had looked so happy but tried to look annoyed when he saw Keith, but Keith had dashed any hope Lance had.

They get to Keith’s hoverbike and clamber on quickly. The heavier set boy helps Keith ride across the desert land, drifting around tight corners to lose some of the Garrison soldiers. They escape the Garrison through the harsh desert towards Keith’s shack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week was hard. My puppy got hit by a car and passed away yesterday, I am really sick and my dad has started working graveyard shifts. I also have to help with my school's photos and yearbook group which is taking a lot of my time. So sorry this is a few days late but I hope you can understand. Love ya'll!!!!


	8. What's A Pen Worth?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finds (out) new things. Oh and there are pens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was more of a way for me to let go(???) I guess of some of the things that I've been bottling up for the past few months... Um, yeah. The chapter kinda fumbles around and I kinda dropped the ball a couple times but I picked it back up! Anyways, the convo that Lance and Keith have in the training room is actually part of the conversation I had with my dad. But, yeah. Enjoy!

Flying in the blue lion was more than anything Lance could ever imagine. She connects with him in ways no one else ever could. She whispered in his head the second they reached the tunnel, Keith had said he started hearing whispers when Shiro’s team was reported missing in action.

Lance winces as Pidge pulls his hair and Hunk pulls at his arm. Luckily, Shiro and Keith pull at the seat instead of him.

They land at a fairytale-like castle, like one from Lance’s dreams. The castle is a white with blue highlights between the connections. The lion brings them in and everything happens so fast that Lance doesn’t even blink before catching the body falling from the shimmering compartment.

Everything was happening so fast. One second they’re at the castle and the next they’re looking for the other lions. Then suddenly they’re watching a giant wall sliding up that reveals the black lion behind it.

Coran and Allura forced them to bond with each other and not gonna lie, it did make Lance feel closer to them even though Pidge was struggling to be 100% with them. Lance kinda understood after he yelled at the rescued prisoners where his dad and brother were.

Lance finally started piecing together that they weren’t going back to Earth at the Arusian party.

The party was great but it wasn’t anything like Earth, Lance went to the bridge with Coran a close second behind him. Coran showed him how far away he was to his family and Earth, Lance never felt so hopeless. 

As they were walking out, Rover hovered in causing Lance to feel like something was definitely wrong. Then suddenly Rover exploded, Lance jumped behind Coran covering most of him from the blast.

Lance heard only snippets of what happened and only felt the pain as people either moved him around or just plain out tossing him to the ground.

When Lance finally came to, a Galra was in the room fighting with Shiro, Keith, and Pidge. Lance summons his bayard and takes the shot. 

“Lance!” was the only thing he heard before slumping over and losing consciousness.

Lance blinked his eyes open and Keith was next to him, fear and pain were written all over his face.

“We did it. We are a good team.” Lance smiled at Keith trying to calm him down, trying to tell him that he was alright.

Lance felt his mind slowly give way and everything went dark.

When he woke up he stumbled out of the cryopod into someone’s arms. When Keith said they had a bonding moment Lance automatically felt to deny but instead he smiled and nodded his head.

\---

His arm starts tingling one night and Lance watches his arm fill up with his family’s writing. He almost starts crying then and there but smiles as his mother’s loopy handwriting starts appearing on his arm.

 _Leandro? Why are they telling us you’re dead?_

_Lance! Dónde estás?!_ (Where are you?!)

Acere, ¿que bolá? (What’s up, bubby?)

_¿Te estás perdiendo clase otra vez?_ (Are you missing class again?)

 _Así que ayúdame, Lance, te mataré mientras duermes. No puedo encontrarte en ninguna parte y está empezando a asustarme. (_ So help me, Lance, I'll kill you while you sleep. I can’t find you anywhere and it’s starting to scare me.)

Lance laughs through the stab of pain in his chest at Ver’s angry writing.

 _¿Está bien? Creo._ (It’s okay? I think.) Lance writes back and is filled with his family’s relief.

Lance walks through the empty hallways as he reads what his family writes. He walks into the lounge-like area and flops onto the couch, noticing Pidge typing away at their computer.

“Oh! Hey, Pidge. What are you doing?” Lance asks tapping his pen on his arm. Pidge doesn’t look up but nods their head.

“I’m going through the inscription we found in one of the sentry’s data logs for anything about my dad or my brother.” Lance nods his head tapping his fingers and pen against his lap watching her type away at her computer.

Pidge shakes their head and looks over to Lance. They seem to be thinking about something as they curl their mouth in question.

“Have you tried writing to them?” Pidge looks shocked that Lance beats her to ask something.

“I-um-I don’t think they have any writing things on them.” Lance laughs and shakes his head, causing Pidge to smile a little.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. Has your mom said anything yet?” Pidge’s eyes widen, her mouth parts a little and she sucks in a gasp.

“Oh my god. I completely forgot about her.” Lance jerks back as if slapped and frowns.

“What?”

Pidge scrambles around looking for something as Lance realizes she’s looking for a pen, handing her the one in his hand.

“Um, thanks.” Lance nods his head and stands up to look for another pen.

His arm tingles as his family keeps writing but Lance doesn’t pay any attention to it, meandering down the hallways for a spare pen lying about.

He slows to a stop outside of the training deck, listening for any crashing sounds but hearing none. Lance peeks his head in seeing Keith on the ground staring upward at the ceiling. There's a pen cap near his foot but no pen insight.

He doesn’t look hurt or in pain, just staring off, he looks pretty relaxed actually. Lance goes to take a step forward when Keith turns his head to look at the entryway. Lance stills like a deer in headlights but Keith turns his gaze back to the ceiling. 

“You can come in, if you want that is, I just need a minute.” Lance steps into the room as if he’d make any noise louder, he’d scare Keith away. Keith keeps staring at the ceiling, flickering his eyes to Lance a couple of times before turning on his side to get up.

Lance taps his pen on his leg, watching Keith get up, wanting to ask if something was wrong but coming up short. His voice catches in his throat, causing him to let out a weird choked-off sound.

If Lance was ever asked if he made that noise in the future, Lance would firmly deny it.

“Um, what is-are you- What are you doing?” Lance settles on finally. His thoughts are going a thousand miles a minute, did something happen to him after Sendak? It’s probably about Sendak.

“Ah, um, nothing anymore. I was just thinking about how we were fooled by Sendak-and um the Arusians that got hurt... Allura and I, we shouldn’t have gone out, we should have known it was a diversion. You were basically blown up and Shiro got hurt,” Bingo. “I just don’t know what would do if you two left me, what would happen to my soulmate if I had died being stupid.” Nevermind, way off track from what Lance had been expecting the conversation to go.

“Keith, sure, you might think that the diversion was bad, but I think in our situation, you did the best you could with an almost death experience. I don’t think if you would’ve died though, I think the only one closest to dying was me.” Lance does a small nonchalant shrug and a self deprecating laugh.

Keith just stands there looking at the door. There’s a hitch in his breath and Lance watches him fall apart. Lance quickly gets up and goes to hug him, pausing with his arms out about to ask if it’s okay to hug him when Keith turns and his legs buckle. Lance swiftly catches him before he can hit the floor.

“Hey, hey, hey. Don’t worry Keith, you’re okay now and nothing is going to happen to you or any of us right now. And your soulmate is probably waiting for you to write to them. They’re probably worried sick about your bruises and cuts, so write to them as soon as you get a pen. You can’t keep everything to yourself, dude. It’s not good for you, and we’re all ready to talk to you if you want.” Keith nods his head and wipes away his tears. “Some things just can’t change and you can’t keep thinking of how things could’ve gone if you had done something differently. You lived through it and now you can use it to become better.” Lance rubs Keith’s back and pats it when he sniffs.

“Thanks Lance.” Keith wraps his arms around Lance and tightly hugs him. He lifts his head to look at Lance. Lance’s chest feels like there’s thousands of butterflies flying around. “Um, and I want-I’ll think about your offer.”

Lance smiles and nudges Keith’s shoulder with his own.

“Hey, come on. I think Hunk has dinner ready.” Lance stands up and helps Keith up. His hand tingles and he flexes his fingers around Keith’s hand as he lifts him up. Keith holds his hand a little longer before letting go and taking a step back.

“Sorry if you needed to use the training room, I was planning on leaving after you came in.” Lance shakes his head and pats Keith’s arm.

“No worries man, I was just looking for something. I saw you on the ground and thought you got hurt and needed a cryopod.” Keith nods his head and starts walking, he slows as if he’s waiting for Lance to catch up to him.

Keith points to Lance’s arm. “Are you talking to your family?”

Lance nods and points to one of the lines. “That’s my mom,” he points to another line, “and that’s Veronica. I guess the Garrison is trying to hide our disappearance by saying we died. Which is kinda funny cause our family would feel it if we died, or well they’d see marks.”

Lance keeps talking as they head to the kitchen, Keith asks about his family and Lance talks and talks and talks.

When they get to the kitchen, Hunk is just setting plates out at the table and Shiro and Allura are already sitting down. Shiro watches them coming in and smiles at them as they sit down.

“Hey guys, it’s good to see you two finally getting along.” Keith scoffs and Lance smiles.

“We get along, Shiro. You’re just too focused on everything else.”

Shiro laughs and looks at Allura. “If you say so, kiddo.”

Keith frowns and sits in one of the seats farthest away from Shiro.

Coran walks in and pats Lance’s shoulder. “Number three, do you think you can get Pidge to come down? I forgot to get her as I was coming down from the bridge.”

Lance smiles and does little finger guns at Coran. “Of course, I’ll go get the little gremlin. I think she’s in the same place the last time I saw her. Oh, Hunk, make sure you save me one of those bread rolls you’ve been trying to perfect.”

Hunk, shocked, looks up from the bowl he had just been stirring. “Wha-How-When did-What?”

Lance laughs and walks out of the room. Lance doesn't notice a pair of violet eyes staring at him fondly as he walks out. The owner quickly shaking his head and looking at Shiro who's giving him the look.

* * *

After dinner is finished, Lance walks the empty hallway to his room. He’s distracted by the thoughts that went through his head throughout the day, like Hunk and his rolls or Keith actually showing emotion.

Coran suddenly appears out of nowhere next to Lance, causing him to scream.

“Mierda! What the fucking quiznack Coran!” Lance, pouting, puts a hand to his chest trying to calm down the rapid thudding in his chest. Coran blinks and pats Lance's shoulder as if saying sorry.

"Sorry, my boy. Seems I'm a little too stealthy these days, well for you youngins. I will do my best to make it known when I’m around.” Coran nods his head a little with a slight frown to his lips. Lance yawns before patting Coran’s shoulder.

“Okay, sounds good. Well I’m gonna hit the hay, sooo good night.” Lance laughs at Coran’s scrunched up brows and squinted eyes.

“Hit the hay? Isn’t that a type of grass on Earth? Why are you hitting it?” Lance laughs even harder, causing him to snort which makes him laugh harder.

“No-hah-I’m not-haha-It’s just-It’s just a Earth saying. It means-ha-that I’m tired and I’m going to bed.” Lance laughs tiredly and rubs the back of his neck. He pats Coran’s shoulder and walks the rest of the way to his room.

**How was today?**

Lance smiles, patting around his bed for one of the million pens he had brought in the bag, that currently is hidden between his bed and the cold metal wall. 

When they had stopped at Keith’s shack, Lance found a small backpack that Keith said he could have. Lance and Hunk went to one of the nearby towns and raided their stores for pens and different things they thought they would need before searching for the lion thing Keith and Shiro kept mentioning.

It was funny watching the cashier’s faces when they bought over twenty boxes of fifty pens to the checkout line. Lance remembers one of them asking if they were going somewhere or if there was a search pairing trip they were going on. Lance had only smiled and said “Something like that.”

Hunk had some of the pens scattered throughout the castle for everyone to use the first night. Lance had helped by putting a cup full of pens in the kitchen, the lounge, the library, the bridge, and the med bay. Allura had only given them a questioning glance as she walked in before turning around and heading back out.

Lance taps the pen on his arm before answering back.

**_Spectacular. I found that classmate that had disappeared. His life was just hard for a bit but we’re buds now. How are you?_ **

**My brother came back and now we’re on a trip with some friends. It’s hard to be with other people, other than my brother, but they’re actually pretty cool.**

**_That’s good to hear (read haha) Are you planning on doing anything for spring break?_ **

**Um, yeah. I kinda want to see other places and see if my brother will let us go somewhere nice.**

**_Awe lucky. I hope I can go to some beach that’s nice and sunny. Or see a rain storm, I really miss those_ **

**Have you not seen any recently?**

**_Nah, but back home though there would be rainstorms or thunderstorms almost every week._ **

**Woah that’s crazy. How long did they go for?**

**_Mostly 20min but it's even longer in April through October_ **

**Oh so not that long.**

**_Yeah but it was the best to run in because of the warm breeze. Heaven basically_ **

**Haha Heaven, sure.**

**_Don't mock me_ **

Lance writes until he glances up at the clock by his bedside.

**_Hey it’s getting super late. You must be tired and I’m barely able to keep my eyes open_ **

**Huh I guess it is late. ~~I’ll wri Will y~~ Can we write tomorrow?**

**_Of course! We have been doing it almost daily now.... sooo yeah_ **

**:)**

Lance lays down watching the other writing smudge and wipe away to nothing. He sighs and gets one of his face wipes and starts clearing off his arm.

Lance walks into his bathroom and starts washing his face and doing the rest of his night routine before getting back into his covers and shutting his eyes.

**_- Lance, is it you?-_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So January was pretty bad and so was last week. I had my first panic attack in front of a lot of people, I almost got kidnapped, my 7 month old (girl) puppy passed away after getting hit by a car, and both my dad and I had long nights at work. I also got my tests back from my sleep doctor and I have insomnia. Oooof.  
> But some really great things happened too like I turned 17! YAY! Um, my grandma's neighbor got my family a new (10 week old boy) puppy, I know how to take care of myself if I feel a panic attack is coming, and I finished this chapter. Which can I say was amazing and pretty great finally finishing it.  
> But THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH for all the lovely comments and the really nice messages some of you have sent me on Tumblr and Twitter.  
> Thank you again and I'll see YOU in the next chapter!


	9. A Little Bit Of Writing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A solo mission and more soulmate stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really sorry this chapter is late. A bunch of stuff has happened that made it harder to update. But! There are a couple parts that have a little hints for future chapters. Some that'll be brought up and others fully laid out. Can you guess them?? I actually want to see how many people can point them out. yeah.

Allura woke everyone up for a distress message from a nearby planet, they were asking for help with a small problem with the Galra.

They all get to the bridge bright eyed and bushy tailed. Pidge's glasses are slightly skewed on their face, small red lines covering their face, almost like she fell asleep with her glasses on.

Keith looks over to Lance finding him leaning against Hunk yawning and rubbing his tired eyes. He rubs his fists against his eyes trying to wake the sleep out of his eyes.

Cute… Keith feels the corners of his mouth slightly curve upward, he quickly turns his head away as not to get caught. Keith looks back up to the front, where Allura and Shiro are standing, Allura debriefing the mission statuses.

Shiro has his eyes already trained on Keith with a broad smile, Keith flinches as he feels the blood rushing to his face.

Shiro and Allura thought it is best as a solo mission instead of sending the whole team for something small. They ask all the paladins before finally choosing Keith to go.

'Of course it's me.' Keith rolls his eyes but gets ready anyways. 

The planet is smaller than Earth, mostly made up of desert and thin forests. 

Keith is excited for the action as he flies down to the planet. He starts a video call with the head chief of the planet, the chief tells him that the Galra are in the northern east stronghold and they are destroying all their crystal livestock and taking their children to keep the parents working.

Keith lands Red behind a tall plateau, near the back of the stronghold. There isn't a significant amount of Galra outside but there are several sentries to each single Galra soldier. Two sentries are posted outside of the opening, their metal bodies shining in the hot sun. Keith places his bayard away, getting out a layout scanner/binoculars.

The stronghold is small and doesn't seem to have any significance to it but Keith can tell from the large amount of Galra, that it's bigger on the inside.

Three speeders pass by, heading to the opening. All carrying multiple large boxes filled with small crystals. The boxes have some type of tarp material covering the top of them.

A crystal falls out of one of the boxes and Keith quickly snatches it off the ground. The crystal doesn't seem to have any extravagance to it, it just seems like a shiny rock.

Keith stares at the crystal as he turns his comms on. "Hey, Pidge? I'm bringing this back for you to get a couple scans on." He flips it around in his hand, watching it shine and glimmer, before placing it in a side compartment in his paladin armor.

Keith watches as four speeders pass by, he watches as the sentries just wave them in. They don't look to see if anything is hiding in the large boxes.

He takes off running behind a Galran speeder, jumping into one of the boxes, as it drives into the stronghold. 

* * *

**_Man! You have so many bruises and cuts! What is it with you and pain!?_ **

**I accidentally got in the middle of a big fight. Guys just kept piling on, it ain't my fault.**

**_Uh huh sure._ **

**You should see the other guys.**

**_I bet you look worse._ **

Keith smiles while Coran comes at him with cotton swabs and an Altean alcohol that makes Keith think of hydrogen peroxide by the bubbling and small tingles of pain as it reacts.

Keith starts wiping away the pen ink on his arm and places the pen he was using on the side.

Coran dabs at the large cut on Keith's waist and frowns at it when Keith hisses in pain. "I know you just want me to put you in a pod but I need to make sure there weren't any poison tipped blades in that dog pile.”

Keith chuckles, wincing as he places his hand near the edge of the gash. "At least it was a successful mission compared to last time."

Coran swats his hand away and shakes a finger at him. “Don’t you even think about touching it right now. I do not want to clean up any more blood than I have to do already.” Coran taps the swab a little harder than needed, while Keith grinds his teeth holding back a growl.

Coran pats Keith’s leg and picks him up like he weighs nothing. "Plus, all of you paladin's missions have been successful in their own ways."

“Coran I can walk by myself, this is really unnecessary. The pods are literally right there. And my last solo mission definetly didn't go well.” Keith tries squirming out of Coran’s hold but they’re already close to the pods and Coran only ignores him. He sets Keith down to his feet and helps him step into the pod.

“My boy, sometimes we do things to bring ourselves comfort, even if it’s the smallest things. You got the information we needed, of course with some difficulty, but you did get it.” Coran laughs as he presses Keith back until the back of his head touches the soft padding of the Altean machine. 

Keith ignores the last part of what Coran said, instead whining about the pod. “Coran, I really don’t like the pod. Could I just let it heal by itself?”

Coran sighs and shakes his head. “I’m sorry Number 4 but no can do. We don’t need infections to occur in the process and the only way to do that is the pod.”

Keith frowns, hands clenching at his sides. “I don’t like the feeling, Coran. It’s like my whole body is shutting down and I can’t do anything to stay awake.” Keith feels himself shiver, as if a cold breeze went by.

Coran frowns too, but keeps preparing the pod for Keith and pats his shoulder before stepping back.

“Then try not to get this hurt next time. Didn’t Shiro say your soulmate can feel your pain and emotions?” 

Both of them are quiet for a bit, Shiro had turned pale as he told Allura and Coran about all of their soulmates, the first week after they were out of the cryopods. Adam must have felt the pain Shiro went through while he was with the Galra. Pidge had patted Shiro’s arm and Lance had stayed quiet, Hunk had folded into himself quietly crying into his arms.

Lance took Hunk out of the room and Keith could hear them quietly talking in the hallway. Instead of keeping on the somber conversation, Keith distracted all of them with a memory from one of the cuts on his arm that his jacket hid.

Lance wasn’t in there to do it and Keith didn’t want the tight feeling in his chest anymore. He told them it was his soulmate’s, they had fallen from a tree and got the wind knocked out of them. Keith had complained afterwards that he could feel what happened and Shiro had freaked out thinking Keith was choking on something at the time.

They all laughed as Lance and Hunk walked in, causing Hunk to ask them what they were talking about. Lance immediately got excited which led to him sharing about his soulmate, everyone telling something they or their soulmate did.

The tight feeling was gone as they laughed with each memory.

Keith could feel the pain now but he didn’t understand what emotions he was feeling or if it was his soulmates. Sometimes he could tell when he was writing to his soulmate.

“I don’t know, it’s different for every pair.” Keith watches Coran as the glass materializes in front of him, Coran smiles and touches the Altean writing on the pod and Keith feels himself falling asleep just as Lance walks into the room holding a blue pen.

A blue pen? Why blue? Is he writing to his soulmate too?

Keith, suddenly panicking, has the sudden urge to try and talk to him, to talk about what happened prior to his solo mission and the pen in his hand. But the cold mist starts building up and up and u-

* * *

Lance watches as Keith brings his hand up to the glass, eyes bright and open, before drooping asleep- closing his eyes- and the pod letting out a gentle hum throughout the room. A puff of air coming out of a valve on one of the sides.

 _Panic and want_ fill his lungs for a couple of seconds before disappearing altogether to a senseless tiredness.

Lance watches Keith breathe slowly in the pod, his chest rising and falling steadily.

“Hello Number 3! What can I do for you?” Coran wipes at the blood and cleans up the things he had been using on Keith.

“Oh, I was- um- I was going to talk to Keith- You know about the stuff that happened on his solo mission.” Coran smiles and pats Lance’s shoulder.

“Ah, you missed him by a dobash. I cleaned his stab wound, in case there was any of that nasty Dairugger toxin, of course. The side effects are pretty scary to see. You know, I remember when I was a young griflugger, I had the worse-” 

“OKAY, CORAN.” Lance slaps his hands over his ears before Coran could say anything else. He glances back at Keith’s pod, hands falling down, trying to see if there had been any change. Lance takes a step toward the cryopod before he hears a cough, turning back to Coran with a smile. It falters with Coran’s knowing look, but he shakes his head and heads towards the sliding doors.

“Have you talked to him, after what happened?” Coran asks in an uncharastically small voice.

Lance shakes his head and places his hand on the scanner, he fiddles with the pen in his hand as he speaks. “I’ve been avoiding it. I don’t want him thinking I’m a pushover or that I want to take back the stuff I said. Wouldn’t you be afraid?”

Coran shakes his head, looking down at the floor. “I wouldn’t, your Earthling life spans are much shorter than Altean life spans but I wouldn’t wait. I shouldn’t have waited and I missed conversations I could have had. It’s too late now to have them. If I had known...” His eyes are dim, shining with unshed tears, and he frowns.

Lance's hand falls off the scanner. Coran has the same look his mother did. The hollow, empty eyes. Almost as if they're living through the moment over and over again. Lance can remember the same look in his own eye after the two funerals. Lance can't imagine what it would be like to lose thousands of friends and family, the way Coran had.

Coran shakes his head again and looks back up to Lance’s face, eyes less dim. “You shouldn’t wait.”

Lance only nods his head- his chest hurting as if he’d been stabbed- as he leaves the room. He’d have to ask Coran about what he said but that can wait, it still seems to be a wound still open.

* * *

While the Lions were in the hangar replenishing energy, Allura worried that the Galra would come out of nowhere to attack them again while Keith and Hunk were in the cryopods. Hunk had gotten hit by a stray plasma shot that was going for Pidge.

Lance walks into the kitchen, tapping his pen against his hand, finding Shiro and Allura at the table eating bowls of green goo.

“What’s up Space Dad and Miss Beautiful."

“Hello, Lance. We were just discussing what our objective was after Keith and Hunk are out of their own respective pods.” Allura flicks a stray strand of hair over her shoulder.

Shiro walks over to the goo dispenser and hands Lance a bowl. “I think Keith has maybe thirty five minute- I mean around thirty five dobashes left, I went in earlier as Coran finished checking up on him.”

Allura nods and stands up from her seat. “Well, I have matters to attend to before they are out. So if you would excuse me.”

Shiro bows his head while Lance just smiles and points finger guns at her. Allura frowns at him but shakes her head and steps out of the room.

“I was thinking about what happened after you shot Sendak, Lance. I’m really proud of you, but what exactly did you say to Keith after?” Shiro turns to look at him, waiting with a soft smile. He sits next to Lance at the table and moves around his food with a spoon-looking utensil. 

“I-Uh, well- I told him we- um- make a good team? I guess.” The hesitation in his voice makes him cringe, Shiro’s smile only widens.

“That’s _nice_.”

“I don’t like that tone of voice, Shiro.”

Shiro, laughing, pats him on the shoulder. Lance bats at one of his hands and tries scooting away.

“Plus he isn’t gay, or bisexual like me.”

“Wait, you didn’t know?” Shiro slides closer to him on the couch.

“Shiro, stop playin’ with me. What do I not know?”

“I don’t know, you can ask Keith. It’s not my secret to tell.”

“What the f-”

Pidge stumbles in between the sliding doors as they’re opening, rubbing their eyes.

“Why are you whining about now, Lance?”

“Shut the f-” Shiro slaps a hand over his mouth before he finishes.

“Language.” Lance’s eyebrows screw up in frustration, grunts and shoves Shiro away.

Out of nowhere, an alarm sounds off. (Scaring everyone in the room.)

Lance and Shiro scramble off the couch and the three of them start heading to the med bay.

* * *

_ **Keith? Hey man, open your eyes.** _

Keith tries stepping up. His foot barely lifts and the rest of his body moves forward.

After being in the cryopods so many times, you’d think he understood his body is a limp noodle after getting out.

“Woah there, kiddo.” Shiro catches him before he almost lands on his face.

Keith sloppily wipes his tingling hand to his eye and rubs it. “What time is it?”

“11:40, Earth time.”

“A.M. or P.M.?”

“Well it’s only been thirty five minutes since you’ve gotten in.”

“Sooo, night time?”

“No.” Shiro smacks the back of his head and Keith punches his arm, clumsily, and almost falls out of Shiro’s hold.

Shiro laughs, tightening his hold around Keith. Keith tries shoving him away but gives up after his arms flop around uselessly.

Pidge pinches Keith’s side, looking anywhere but him, and Keith automatically pulls them into a flimsy hug.

“When does Hunk get out?” Keith looks around the room, finding Lance who’s basically hiding in the outskirts of the room.

“He will be out in exactly seven dobashes.” Coran pops up behind Keith, Shiro, and Pidge’s little group hug, causing Pidge to screech in Keith’s ear in surprise.

Lance steps a bit closer but doesn’t cross the unseen line between him and the rest of them. He stares at the ground seeing a wall begin to build. They add on and build until Lance eventually stops looking. _It’s too hopeless._

“Hey, Lance. Aren’t you going to hug Keith too?” A brick falls out.

“Wh-What?” Lance looks up from the floor, finding Coran’s knowing look. Lance flinches, looking to Keith. His chest is tight and aching, Lance can start to feel himself starting to hyperventilate. His breath stutters in his chest as he finds indigo eyes.

And Keith is already watching him, a small smile coming to his face as he slightly lifts a hand towards him. Either an indication to come hug him or something else. A part of Lance's brain says it's just him dealing with Lance. The other part, almost screaming, says he wants Lance to join them. To be included.

Lance feels the corners of his mouth curving into a smile, as he shuffles his way to the little group, hugging them all too.

 _Fzztt-_ The moment is broken when Hunk comes, almost tumbling, out of his pod. Coran is the first to move and catches him before he falls flat on his face.

Hunk breathes out a relieved breath and thanks Coran.

"Okay, well this is great and all but I am deadbeat tired. And I'm a little hungry too." Keith mumbles in the middle of the group hug.

Hunk, looking three seconds away from sobbing, ignores everything Keith said and stumbles to the group. With his large bearlike arms, Hunk gathers all of them up in his arms into a giant hug.

Allura quietly walks into the room, seeing the paladin's hugging each other with a Coran in the hug too, joins them.

Shocking most of the paladins, Keith lets out a groan and mutters something about it getting too hot.

"We love you too, Keith." Shiro laughs and Hunk squeezes them tighter. Lance smiles, Pidge groans, Allura lets a tear fall, and Coran pats Shiro's back.

And Keith, Keith watches the people around him like he’s finally inside for the first time. Not the loner or the outsider. He finally is allowed inside and everyone wants him too. Keith hugs everyone around him tighter and Lance smiles at him.

Lance smiles at him.

Lance.

Keith bows his head and catches a glimpse at Lance’s arm. He flinches as he finds blue writing edging the cuff of his long sleeved jacket. Keith twists his wrist a tad bit to find the same ending letters on his arm.

“What’s wrong, Mullet?” Lance shocks him out of his line of thought.

“It’s nothing…” Keith mumbles and hides his face in Shiro’s arm.

_It’s him. It’s Lance._

_Lance is my soulmate._

_What's wr-What do you mean?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, my life is officially a mess. In February, some stuff happened that freaked me out, (being a really obsessive and controlling guy) and this month has been a struggle to get everything in my life back in order. I have a job that is good but I am sooo stressed with school and other responsibilities that I am in charge of. Like have you ever just wanted everything to stop? Like you could stop going to work but still get money? Cause man, I am so tired of everything. Anyways, I'm really sorry for the super late chapter and I'm writing most of the next few chapters right now.... The next chapter definitely won't be this long... But yeah. I'll be done with the next chapter in maybe half a week or more.


	10. Stuck In A Figment Of An Illusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gash is just a gash, a cut is just a cut, and a broken heart is a broken heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \--------PLEASE READ THE ENDING OF THE LAST CHAPTER BEFORE READING THIS CHAPTER!!------------  
> \-----------I CHANGED A MAJOR PART THAT YOU WON’T UNDERSTAND W/O READING IT!!!-------------  
> KAY! So this chapter is basically all angst cause all the stuff that's happening around me is kinda getting to me and ughhh I just want stuff to be done. Anyways, the next chapter is wayyyy better and is a lot happier. But is was an angsty birthday present for my friend Trist! Happy birthday, bro!!!  
> (Also listen to Cause It Hurts by Alec Benjamin as you're reading this chapter...)

Keith hears a fizzing sound as he wakes up, the cold slowly seeping away from his body.

_What? Why am I cold?_

“Keith? Hey man, open your eyes.” Lance’s voice starts muffled then slowly gets louder as the cold slowly disappears. Lance helps him out of the pod and Coran holds him up by one of the elbows.

Keith slowly blinks his eyes open, finding everyone with worried looks. “What’s wrong?” His voice slurs lightly.

“Keith, your pod was flashing red and your body temperature spiked for unknown reasons. We can not find any problems or malfunctions with the system.” Coran places his hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Wait, what do you mean?” Keith blinks at him, a frown creeping onto his face.

“Man, come on. Your pod sent out a distress alarm before you were ready to come out.” Lance mumbles quietly, his hand reaching out but falling back to his side.

“What are you fucking talking about? I woke up out of the pod already.”

“Um, no you didn’t.” Shiro tilts his head to the side looking Keith over, then looks to Allura, who Keith didn’t even notice was there.

“Keith, you have not been out of the pod for the last thirty five dobashes.” Allura takes a small step forward, causing Keith to flinch. Coran rubs Keith’s arm, but Keith jerks it out of his hold. 

Keith’s hands go to his side and flinches as he feels wetness.

“What the h-” Keith feels his side erupt into pain and a groan cuts his sentence off. He bends over clutching his side, knees hitting the floor hard and he whimpers in pain.

“Coran, what’s happening to him? Why’s he bleeding?” Shiro is at Keith's side in an instant.

“I’m getting the scanner!” Pidge runs to the other side of the room and shoves objects around.

“S-Shiro, help me, it hurts.” Keith can barely force the words out, his side is like a fire spreading through a forest throughout his body. He tries to hold Shiro’s hand but the distance looks so far and Shiro’s face blurs in and out of focus.

It starts at his side flowing outward, spreading to his chest and starts going down his abdomen, down his hips and reaching his knees in a matter of seconds. The more it spreads, the more it hurts. His eyesight flashes with a blinding whiteness. It makes him reel.

The pain is like knives that have been dipped in alcohol and have been jammed through his skin, like his arm has been replaced with ice and electricity wired straight into his spine.

He can feel himself writhing on the floor. He must have fallen lower to the floor at some point, or Coran and Shiro laid him down. Keith tries looking up from his agonised curl and finds Lance sitting closely next to him, pressing at his side.

“Lance? Why am I on the floor? I thought we were hugging.” Keith whispers in pain.

“Keith, what the fuck are you talking about? You fell to the floor, don’t you remember?”

“Remember? I remember Pidge and you and Shiro hugging me before Hunk got out and-.”

“What? Tumba eso. No, we talked about this, we just took you out and Hunk is still in his pod.” Lance frowns and places the back of his hand on Keith’s forehead.

“Coran, he’s burning up and sweating buckets. Shiro, what do we do?”

Keith blinks and finds Shiro on his other side, staring at the wound. The pain softens to a needling pain as Coran pours something in the wound.

“Shiro? Where’s Pidge and Hunk?”

Shiro looks Keith in the eye. “Pidge is getting the scanner and Hunk is still in his pod.” 

“No, he isn’t.”

“Yes, he is, Keith. Lance just told you he was.” Shiro helps move Keith’s head towards one of the pods. Hunk is asleep soundly in the pod.

“Why is he in the pod? He got out already.” Blood flows out a little faster every time he talks.

“What are you talking about Keith? We just took you out and Hunk has fifteen dobashes in his pod left.” Shiro’s eyebrows are raised and knit together, his face is pale and he tries giving Keith a smile but it’s shaky and crumbles.

Keith is suddenly lifted up and placed on a bed. The pain explodes again and Keith cries out. A part of him feels relieved to be placed on a softer surface, but the rest of him can’t even connect anything because of the pain. Everything goes black for a couple of seconds, but Keith realizes it’s been more than seven minutes.

“Hey, Keith. What did Pidge do when you got out of the pod?” Coran appears next to Shiro, prodding the wound and pouring some other liquid on a piece of gauze. He pats the edges of the wound and looks down closely at it.

“Allura, it isn’t clotting. Is that normal for humans?” Coran turns to Allura then to Shiro, but Shiro just stares down at Keith not answering.

Lance hurriedly jumps in, “No, it isn’t normal. It’s definitely way opposite from normal.”

Pidge shoves a flat round object into Coran’s hand and places a container of cream looking ointment on the bed.

“Keith, who was in front of the pod when you got out?” Coran asks again as he holds the round object above the gash.

“Pidge and Shiro, La-” Keith whimpers and cries out as the pain in his side grows worse.

“Lance was there?” Keith slightly nods his head, curling around himself.

Keith, suddenly remembering the last thing before getting out of the pod “again”, jerks up and looks for Lance. He finds Lance turning around and starting to walk away. “Lance!” Keith tries catching his shirt but winces as the skin pulls at his side.

“Keith? What’s wrong?” Lance turns back around and rushes back to his side.

“I have- I need to see your arms.” Keith pulls at his arms and tries shoving up his sleeves.

“Le faltan unos cuantos tornillos.” Lance says to Hunk as he moves Keith’s hands away and pulls his sleeves up.

Keith stares as the tan skin slowly uncovers from underneath the long sleeved shirt. 

_Where’s his jacket?_

There’s nothing on his left arm. 

Nothing. 

Keith touches his arm lightly, flipping it over and running his hand down softly.

No writing or drawings.

No blue lines of comfort.

Lance’s right arm has a couple of lines, small scribbles, and a few drawings.

Keith feels his stomach drop. “Lance, did you talk to your soulmate at all today?”

“Of course I did, I teased them for messing around and getting hurt.”

“Oh, did they say what they were doing?”

“Why are you asking? He was probably getting bullied again, he had a couple bruises and cuts but my side of the bond disappears after twentyish minutes.”

Keith nods his head and lets go of Lance completely. He lays back on the bed and lets Coran work on him. He doesn’t make a noise or flinch as Coran checks for chemicals, poisons, or any substances that could possibly be hurting Keith’s body.

Coran pours more of the first liquid on the gash, making the pain subside back to the stabbing needles feeling. Coran tells everyone who isn’t Pidge to go eat and get some rest, he tells Shiro that he can stay if he wants but that he needs to eat first.

Keith is silent the whole time.

* * *

Lance wakes up earlier than he usually does. Something about Keith yesterday doesn’t sit well with Lance. Keith seemed to shut down and block everything out.

“Is there something I can do that might make you feel more comfortable? Lance sits next to Keith’s bed, his hands are behind his back. Keith can’t see the tremors that run through his hands, he can’t see the sadness pulling at Lance’s face.

Instead, all Keith sees is the wall and the equipment connected to him, trying to find out what’s wrong with him. Life support in a way.

“No.”

“Can I get you anything to eat or drink?” Lance is grasping at the string that’s barely there.

“I’m happy that you’re here, but please stop treating me like your patient. I don’t need anything anymore.”

“You sound like you’re dying, like you’re giving up on everything. You d- I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to like it.” Keith turns his head slightly, he catches Lance’s eye and turns back to the wall.

“That’s stupid, Keith. You’re supposed to get back up from everything! You’re the best pilot in our year and you’re the best fighter on our team.” Lance resists the urge to touch Keith’s shoulder.

“Not anymore, guess you’ll just have to find another red paladin.”

“Keith! Stop talking like that! This doesn’t sound like you’re upset about the gash in your side, it sounds like you’re upset about something else.” Lance angrily gets up from his chair and starts pacing.

“Lance, drop it.” Keith starts to roll over but stops with a choked off gasp, his side slightly pulled by him moving and he goes back to the position he was at, his hand going to his side.

“I think you’re upset about something that happened yesterday, was it us not believing you?” Lance starts pulling the bed away from the wall.

“Lance, stop.”

“Was it me calling you crazy?” Lance lets go of the cot and sits back in the chair.

“No, I didn’t even know you called me crazy.” Keith sighs.

Lance shakes his head, hands starting to sweat. Keith didn’t get riled up like he usually does when Lance bugs or makes fun of him.

“Something is wrong with you.” Lance watches Keith’s back tense up, Keith hisses and relaxes back into the bed.

“Shut up and go away.”

Lance’s mouth drops open, it’d be pretty comical if it weren’t for the circumstances. “Keith, just tell me what’s wrong.”

Keith doesn’t answer, instead he just lays on his cot.

“Can we talk about the whole me and you thing after Sendak?”

“There wasn’t anything, and there will never be a thing between you and I.” Lance can see the way Keith grips onto the blanket, like it’s the only thing keeping him from bursting out.

“Come on Keith, I know you wanted to talk to me about it. I saw you before the pod closed, you lifted your hand up like you were trying to get my attention. What were you going to ask me?”

“Fuck off. Go bug someone else.” Keith pulls the blanket up higher and shifts slightly closer toward the wall.

“Fine, but I’m still going to find out what’s wrong with you.” Lance gets up from his seat and starts walking to the scanner. He can feel the tears forming in his eyes.

“Just stop.” Keith quietly whispers and the room hums around him, drowning his voice out.

Lance walks out of the room with his head hanging low.

* * *

Shiro watches the whole scene play out in his head over and over again, the gladiator coming at him with his jagged ax swinging towards Shiro’s che-“Shiro!” Lance shouts as he comes in causing Shiro to jump in his seat.

“Oh, Lance. When did you come in?” Shiro pats his chest trying to calm his erratic heart.

“Oh, um, just right now? I just shouted your name to get your attention- you know what, it doesn’t matter.” Lance walks over quickly to Shiro and sets several data pads down in a stack in front of him.

“Alright, what’s all of this?” Shiro watches Lance take two and turn them on, setting them up in front of both of them.

“Last night. Keith has been acting strange and I want to find out why but I can’t figure out why things aren’t adding up.” Shiro nods his head and Lance plays the surveillance recordings from the med bay.

The first tablet is them pulling Keith out, though he seems out of it and confused, he doesn’t even notice his wound isn’t healed. There isn’t blood until Keith touches his side and suddenly there’s blood somehow covering all of Keith’s side. It doesn’t slowly seep into color like normal wounds, it just appears. Like it completely skipped the stage of slowly bleeding from his side, if this wasn’t serious Lance could liken it to a glitch in a video game.

“What the heavens? That’s so odd, are you sure that there wasn’t a glitch in the video or even the mainframe?” Shiro takes the data pad from the table and plays the part over and over again.

“There aren't any glitches, like at all.. I had Pidge check the recording and they did their scary hacking thing. They also said they analyzed the movements and everyone else in the recording, nobody glitched or their movements changing drastically.” Lance fiddles with his fingers then reaches for the next data pad.

The second tablet is of when Keith is trying to look at Lance’s arm. Keith’s eyes glaze over and a spike of violet flashes in his eyes, the edges turning yellow before going back to their original color. His skin pales and he looks as though he’s about to cry. As Keith sees the blankness of Lance’s arm, everything for Keith drops. His frantic nature stops, the reddish tint in his skin pales into a sickly color, the color of his eyes turning muted. Almost like flipping a light switch off, Keith’s light and liveliness turns off.

“Oh, no, Keith.” Shiro goes to touch the screen but drops his hand before it touches.

“Shiro, what’s wrong with him? You sound like it’s happened before.” Lance sets the two data pads aside and gets another out from the stack.

“That’s because it has, heck, it’s happened to me too.” Shiro absently touches his prosthetic, moving his fingers over the connection between flesh and meta, looking at the pad still.

“I-” Lance starts before shaking his head, placing the third pad up and a fourth.

It’s the audio of the conversation Lance and Keith had by themselves, and the fourth is as they’re struggling to take care of Keith. Once both of the audios end, Shrio breathes out the breath he didn’t know he was holding in.

“Keith…” Shiro gets up from his seat and starts walking to the door.

Lance jogs to catch up to him and starts tugging on the bottom of his shirt. “Um, Shiro. So was I right about Keith acting weird?”

Shiro nods and pats Lance’s shoulder as they’re briskly walking to the med bay. “Yes, Lance, you were right about Keith acting differently. Not weird, but differently than what you’re used to.”

“You mean he’s done this before?” Lance turns his head to look at Shiro.

“He’s done it, I’ve done it, and so has Pidge. Lance, all of us have done it at some point.”

Lance nods, yet he still doesn’t understand, quiet for the rest of their brisk pace to the med bay.

Once they reach the med bay, Shiro tells Lance to stay outside for a bit, even to go take a nap, while he talks to Keith.

Lance isn’t rude, so he agrees.

Shiro walks into the room finding Keith on his good side and Coran replacing his bandages. The bandages are soaked through, blood stains parts of the bed and pieces of the blanket.

Shiro quickly goes over to help, they lift Keith onto another bed, taking the sheets off and giving Keith the pillows off of the used cot. Keith gives them both a miniscule smile before curling into a ball and pulling the blanket up near the top of his ears.

“Keith…” Shiro sits on the bed next to Keith and starts running his fingers through Keith’s hair. Keith lets out a little hum before going back to being silent.

Coran walks over with a table and sets it down next to the cot. “Okay! I’ve run some tests on Keith and it seems that the wound is slowly repairing itself because of the anticoagulant I injected him with this morning. I didn’t want any blood clots turning up in your veins and arteries but you will need to be eating more.” 

Coran places a couple of different food packs, all of them being certain vitamins in each package. He places a water pack and a juice pack next to the little pile of foods. “I will also bring in plenty of food . It'll be more nutrient dense, also better for fixing and healing in your body.”

Keith doesn’t answer, his body is still and slightly tense. Shiro watches the blanket move slightly more up, it almost completely covers all of Keith’s head. Except being the place where Shiro’s hand is sifting through Keith’s hair.

“Thank you, Coran.” Shiro sighs looking up to the older man and smiles.

Coran nods his head placing another shot on the table. “Keith, I need to give you another shot. This one will hurt more than the last one and the pain will last at least two quintants and the most being a movement. It will remove any poisons in your body, hopefully taking care of what’s keeping your cut open. I need to know if you are okay with having the shot, before I administer it to you.”

Keith slightly nods his head and takes one of his arms out from the blanket.

Coran takes out a data pad and writes a couple of things down, he shifts the sleeve to Keith’s black t-shirt then slowly presses the needle into Keith’s arm.

Keith sucks in a small breath as the needle goes in and lets it out as Coran starts pressing the liquid in.

Keith would be lying if he said he couldn’t feel anything from the shot, but the second it started flowing through Keith’s veins, it felt like fire. The liquid fire burns through Keith’s veins and arteries like water to cotten candy. Fast, it was quickly going through his body and the more he tried slowing it down, like flexing his muscles or tensing, the more it burns.

“Sh-Shiro.” Keith huffs clenching his hands into fists, his body forcefully curling into a ball. The blanket shifts lower as he moves but Keith can’t pull it back up because of the fire in his body.

Shiro looks up to Coran, both of their eyes wide and scared. “Coran, what’s happening? Is this supposed to be happening?”

Coran just nods his head as he walks across the room and pulls out a cooling pack from a freezer-like storage. “I didn’t think there was any, but it seems like Keith is indeed poisoned from the blade that cut him.” 

Shiro takes the cooling pack from him and places it on Keith’s head.

Keith groans but moves closer to the pack, trembling enough that the blanket slips off the top of his body. His body is sickly pale, veins bright red. But strangely, the area that Coran gave the shot is slowly tinting purple.

“Coran, what’s that?” Shiro asks quietly enough that Keith can’t hear, pointing at the mark that’s getting minisculely bigger by the second.

“It would seem like bruising but Pidge has told me that bruises take longer to form after the impact. So I don’t think it is a bruise, well, unless Keith bruises quickly. Which doesn’t seem likely because of the hits I’ve seen Keith take in the training room.” Coran laughs and places another cooling pad on Keith, he tapes it to Keith’s lower back and starts wrapping Keith in his blanket. Coran then walks away and goes to a cupboard.

Shiro directs all of his attention to Keith. He starts rubbing the back of Keith’s neck, a place where Shiro would rub if Keith had a bad day or if he was having trouble sleeping, it always seemed to calm him down and release any tension he had.

Keith sighs and his body slowly relaxes, but he still has the pained expression that Shiro always thought hard to see. He realized early on that Keith would look down a lot if he was in pain, in any amount, he grits his teeth if he’s injured on his arms. Keith clenches his jaw when it was his legs and if it was anywhere else he would do them all. Shiro knew Keith wouldn’t ask for help with the pain. He knew Keith suffered verbal and physical abuse when he was younger, which caused him to tremble in fear if he even made a noise.

Right now, Keith was doing them all. He wasn’t doing them as harshly as he was before but he was still in pain. Shiro was surprised when Keith first got out, he didn’t think Keith would call out to him. But there were times when Keith was younger that he would start opening up, like the times he would tell Shiro and Adam to shut up if they were laughing or talking too loud.

_Adam…_

Shiro sighs out loud, not seeing Coran behind him who turns to look at him. A hand pats Shiro’s shoulder, comforting him in a way he didn’t know he needed.

“Thanks, Coran.”

He nods his head and hands Shiro a small plate of food. “I understand that most of you are stressed out, but you need to stay healthy and be ready for anything at any second.”

Shiro looks at Keith and watches his chest rise steadily and slowly.

* * *

 ** _PALADINS! GALRA ARE ATTACKING THE MAIN VILLAGE!!_ **

Allura’s voice shouts through the intercoms waking all the paladins from their sleep.

Lance blearly runs to the hanger as he’s putting on his suit. As he’s putting on his helmet, Keith is taking slow steps out of the med bay.

“Keith, no, stop.” Lance practically lifts and bridal carries Keith, taking him back into the med bay.

Keith gasps and starts hitting Lance’s arms, trying to make him let go. But he stops as Lance gently sets him down on the bed. He tries sliding off the bed but groans as his side explodes in pain, Lance frowns and his eyes start looking watery as he bites his lip.

Lance turns on his comms long enough to shakily tell Coran to come be with Keith.

“Keith, I can’t let you get hurt again and I don’t want your side opening up again.” Lance touches Keith’s face and steps away just as Coran suddenly appears into the room.

Keith touches Lance’s helmet and taps at the visor. Lance shakes his head and pulls away from Keith’s hands.

“I’ll be okay, Keith. Nothing will happen to the team. I’ll make sure of it.” Lance starts pulling away completely and runs to the door’s scanner. The mistake he makes is looking back as he steps out the door.

Keith is crying large tears, his face is rubbed red with his fists balled, rubbing his eyes as he vehemently shakes his head.

“I’m sorry.”

And the doors shut close with both boys wanting the other.

**_I think you're my soulmate._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Tumba eso= let the subject drop/let it go-  
> -Le faltan unos cuantos tornillos= He's nuts/He's crazy (actual translation is He's missing a few screws)-
> 
> This chapter was a lot of my feelings when I was younger and stuck in the hospital as my mom had one of my siblings. I was injured and she was having a baby but since they were different circumstances, we weren't allowed to be in the same medical wing or the same room. Everyone else got to see my little sister while I was stuck in my room... Man, I am putting too much of my life in this... Oops. Anyways, Love ya'll lots and I hope you've had a great week!


	11. Mama Just Killed A Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladin's are still fighting and Lance is worried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH! HOW CAN WRITERS WRITE SO MANY WORDS SO FAST???? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻  
> Like I am literally worshiping anyone who gets chapters out with no betas every day or every other day cause typing and checking all my stuff is hard!! Thank you for waiting so long for me to finish this chapter.(≧∇≦)ﾉ  
> I struggled a little bit to keep typing and changing the story line cause man I am so bad at finishing things... Anyways! Enjoy this chapter!

Keith takes the data pad from Coran before he can even start handing it to Keith.

Keith isn’t permitted to leave the room and Coran has set up some system that closes the door before Keith can even take a step out, believe me, he’s tried. So, instead of bringing Keith up to the bridge to see the team fight and protect, Coran hands a tablet to Keith.

The data pad seems like all the other Altean tablets, but instead of basic apps, there is only the main screen with five lion icons being Black, Red, Green, Blue and Yellow.

Oh, it’s each of the lions see meaning it’s what each of the paladins see. The Red lion is dim and muted, while the others are bright and saturated.

Keith taps on the Black lion and watches Galra fighter planes speed across the screen like nothing. The sound is on and Keith listens as Shiro barks out commands to the other paladins. The inside of the cockpit flashes red, Shiro is getting hit.

Keith taps out of the Black lion and into Blue’s.

Lance is panting like someone punched him in the stomach. There are multiple warning signs on each of the screens, Lance cries out as his cockpit too lights up red and he’s jerked about.

Keith fists one of his hands and bites one of his knuckles as Lance is hit again.

“Shiro! This isn’t working! Blue isn’t gonna hold up if I take another ion beam from that cruiser.”

Keith taps out and into Green, Pidge is silently shooting the Galra ships that are tagging Hunk and he in turn takes out a couple ships behind Lance.

“Heck yeah! Nice one, Hunk!” Pidge shifts in their seat and pushes Green to go faster.

Keith can see her determined look and watches her slam into one of the ships, sending it hurtling into another Galra.

“Shiro, there’s some strays heading toward one of the villages!” Hunk’s voice is cracking as he shouts, and Keith realizes that he’s crying. Keith taps into Yellow and watches Hunk sniffing and lifting his visor to wipe his eyes with one of his hands. Once he places his visor back in place, he slams into a Galra and Yellow bites one of the ships and throws it at another ship.

“Don’t worry! I’ll take care of them!” Lance shouts then his side goes quiet.

Keith hurriedly shifts off the bed and tries getting out the door again. He holds the data pad close to his chest then sets it on his cot. Keith goes to the door tries slamming into the door with his shoulder, slamming at the door with a table and the chair, and prying it open with his hands. They obviously don’t work and Keith glances around the room trying to-

The vents.

Keith quickly goes to one of the tables that has extra bandages and supplies on it, he takes two bandage rolls and then goes to the bed. Keith picks up the pad from where he left it and runs to the vent, prying it out of the wall and starts to shimmy through. His side is already in pain from him slamming at the door and moving it around but Keith bites his lip to keep from crying out.

He gets to another vent and pounds at it with his hands until it pops out. Keith gets out and looks around, he’s near the kitchen, which means he’s only gone about twelve feet from the med bay.

Keith quickly looks at the tablet and finds each of the lions in similar states of harm. Blue is the only one closest to being at an okay state. But, if Lance keeps going after the Galra in the state that he and Blue are in now, they could be gravely in danger.

Keith takes one of the rolls and starts wrapping it around his stomach, he takes the other roll and wraps part around his arm and the rest around his abdomen. Keith almost trips as he runs to Red’s hangers as he wraps himself but quickly catches himself with the wall and keeps running.

He shoves all his armor on and tells Red to get ready for a quick take off.

Red starts moving out of the exit path and swipes Keith into her mouth as he jumps and jetpacks enough to get into her range for her mouth.

“Hey, did I hear you guys needing backup?” Keith chuckles into the comms, his side burning and pulsing in pain. He stifles a groan with a drawn out laugh as everyone shouts his name in surprise.

“Keith! What are you doing!?” Shiro’s panicked voice bleeds through the comms like water through cracks, Keith winces but fakes a laugh as he blasts through what seems like thousands of Galra ships.

“I’m kicking some Galra butt.” Keith takes out a couple more Galra before diving towards the planet. 

“No! Keith! You are injured! Go back!” Lance shouts through the comms.

A flashing to Keith’s left warns him of an incoming fleet and Allura shouts the same information to the paladins a couple seconds later. He strains in his seat searching for the Blue Lion and catches a glimpse of her at the edge of the large village.

Blue flashes shoot out from a small figure in the middle of a large gathering of larger stature and Keith realizes it's Lance shooting at the Galra and their metal sentries.

“Lance!” Keith jumps out of Red’s mouth as she lands herself next to Blue, his jetpack stuttering as he drops through the air knocking one of the sentries to the ground. He almost yelps in pain but bites his lip instead. 

“No, Keith! Go back to the Castle! I can’t let you get hurt again!” Lance shouts again, but again is ignored.

Keith lets out a soft groan, barely heard by anyone, and activates his bayard.

Lance shouts Keith’s name, overjoyed with the help but his voice is tinted with heavy worry. Lance shoots a couple sentries in a little plating area below their connection links from their necks to the rest of their bodies. The sentries drop immediately, and Lance fires at one Galra getting too close to Keith from behind.

Keith feels his side erupt in pain as a Galra soldier hits him with what seems like an electric baton but much larger, Keith dodges another sentry and kicks it toward the Galra coming after him. 

Lance tries shooting at the Galra but the Galran soldier raises his arm, the shots hitting his arm but don’t seem to do any damage.

The Galra soldier flicks the baton and the end tapers off into a split ended whip.

An electrical zap comes from one of the ends of the whip hitting the other end, the baton glowing a scary purple that causes Keith to gasp.

Keith starts running toward Lance, away from the soldier, away from the whip that looks so much like the belt that was used on him so many years ago.

“L-Lance! I can’t figh-I can’t get hit by that-I don’t want to get hit again.” Keith feels like the air around him is getting sucked out, like a vacuum, he tries gasping the air in.

“Keith? Calm down, buddy. Breathe through your nose, don’t breathe through your mouth. Come on, we can’t do this when we’re fighting buddy.” Lance bumps Keith’s shoulder with his arm as he shoots any sentries that come closer by the second.

“Hey, hey, hey, breathe through your nose, breathe through your nose!” Lance shoves Keith out of the way of a purple shot that was aimed towards his head. Lance pulls Keith up and shoots a stun shot at a Galra who was just about to club Keith’s head.

“Keith! What are you doing?!” The words start to get muffled as Keith’s knees hit the ground. His side gives a slight shock but doesn’t last long enough for Keith to care.

_The belt slapped Keith’s back over, and over, and over. Keith remembers waking up with bruises all over his back and some on his neck._

_His soulmate had tried to comfort him, but why would you want someone broken and messed up?_

_Keith never answered back._

_‘The belt is different tonight, Foster dad must have cut it…’ Keith thought as he tried backing away from the man coming toward him in an outrage._

_Keith stole a glance at the belt after the man had gone to bed, the belt_ **_was_ ** _cut in half. It was torn into multiple pieces and had some hard bound fabric wrapped around the ends of each of the torn pieces on the belt._

_Keith threw the belt into the large ditch that had a mediocre stream running through it, hopefully never to see it again._

_It was back the next night, and the next, and the night after that, all the way to when he was sent to another foster home._

_The next home didn’t have a belt, Keith liked that foster home._

Keith could remember the feeling of the belt hitting his back, his arms, his neck, and parts of his face. Keith lifts a shaky hand up to his face only to come in contact with his helmet.

His helmet.

Keith was supposed to be fighting, not crying **_like_** **_a_** **_baby_**.

Keith grips his bayard tightly and watches as a bright red glow, encompassing it and giving Keith a soothing feeling. The feeling flows throughout his head and down his body, almost like adrenaline.

The red glow softens and disappears leaving Keith with a weight in both hands.

It takes a second but Keith realizes his bayard has split into two swords. Two tachi, to be exact. Well, at least that’s what it looks like to Keith.

“What the living quiznack is that?” Lance pops up in Keith’s peripherals, still fighting and trying to keep the electric whip wielding Galra away from Keith.

“What? What is what?” Pidge’s voice screeches through the comms and Hunk groans on his side, seeming to still be queasy, mumbling to Pidge about something along the lines of shutting pie holes.

Whatever that meant.

“Hey, Shiro? Remember Grandfather telling us not to play with his cool swords if he wasn’t in the room, ya’know after that whole _thing_ that happened when I was younger? Cause I think I got two swords just like that.” Keith starts slicing through the Galra sentries like they were butter. He can feel excitement running through him, 

“Keith, you’re rambling-Wait! You mean his tachi?” Shiro all but shouts the last part and Keith can hear his quiet, in disbelief, laughter.

Keith is about to talk when the lightning hits him, his body almost gives away from the force of the hit but his shield is up and takes most of the lash.

The Galra soldier with the electric whip brings it down again, sending extreme pain through Keith’s body.

Keith cries out and Lance yells his name, the Galran soldier gets three shots to the head before it finally drops to the ground. But another Galra with a different weapon replaces him and starts to completely overwhelm Keith and Lance in a matter of seconds. But after Lance blasts the soldier’s arm, Keith takes the Galra’s weapon and smashes the front of it into the Galra’s head.

Keith feels the swords flow through the air, the cords dangling from their connection to the sword, stabbing into another sentry.

Keith watches his bayard shine red again, it goes back to his original sword.

“What the quiznack was that?! That was so cool!” Lance shouts at Keith as a sentry swings it’s gun at him.

“I-I don’t know.” Keith pants as he shoves a Galra away from him, Lance shoots a couple sentries before taking a shot at the Galra.

Lance gets shoved by a sentry, sending him a good twenty five feet, falling hard to the ground and letting out a small oomph sound as he hits the ground.

“Guys, we took care of most of the Galra ships up here, we’re coming down to help.” Shiro says as he flies low with Black, shooting at the sentries surrounding Keith and Lance.

Keith stabs a sentry through the head as a Galran soldier rams their gun into his side.

Keith screams out and Lance scrambles to get to his side.

“KEITH!” Lance feels his bayard pulsing in his hands, the heat of it almost becoming unbearable, he fires a shot at the Galra.

The plasma shot goes through sentries, one after the other they drop to the sandy ground, finally hitting the Galran soldier. The impact of the shot knocks the Galra off his feet, hitting sentries behind him and then to the ground, not moving.

Shiro yells Keith’s name and lands Black on the ground, firing large blasts at the opposing side. Sentries go flying, Galra screams are heard after the blasts but Shiro just keeps on firing.

Pidge and Hunk land too but Hunk uses Yellow to upturn the ground and sends shock waves through the ground.

Pidge uses Green to protect Blue and Red from the Galra, batting them and the sentries away like flies.

“KEITH! Answer me, please!” Lance fires his bayard over and over until he reaches Keith.

The ten feet that he was sent from the hit caused every muscle in his body to ache, trying to run to Keith felt like he’d already been running for hours.

“Lance.” Keith gasps as he struggles to keep fighting.

“Keith! I’m almost there! Just hold on, I’m almost there. J-Just hold on for me, okay?” Lance gets hit in the chin of his helmet and fires a shot in response.

“Lance, I can’t lift up my arm.” Keith coughs and dodges and blocks a hit that would’ve caused a near limb amputation.

Lance can see that Keith is favoring his left arm, the slashing and stabbing that Keith was doing was getting worse and worse.

“Hey, hey, hey. I’m almost there, Keith. Just wait for me, I’m almost there. I’m almost there.” He repeats the sentence over and over.

Keith hums and struggles to breathe as he stabs another sentry. Red flows her worries for him through his head, the strong emotions from Red cause tears to come to his eyes.

“It’s okay, Red. Lance is coming to help me.”

A sentry shoots at Keith’s chest and it feels like his side rips open as he stabs that sentry behind him and falls into it.

“Lance, where are you?” Keith quietly asks through harsh breaths, slicing the head off of a sentry that tried to grab him.

Lance jumps over a downed Galra and uses a sentry to shoot them, shooting the sentry in the head and swinging it into other sentries in front of him, basically creating a clear path to Keith.

Pidge laughs, “Did you see that, Hunk? He just yeeted that sentry.” They both bust up laughing but quickly sober up as Shiro gives them a command.

“Shiro, I’m gonna need ground cover. I think Keith’s side tore open again, I need to spray some of that weird stuff Coran had sprayed on yesterday and wrap it with gauze.”

“Got it, I’m sending Hunk. Pidge, I’ll cover you.”

“Roger that, Space Dad.”

Lance slides up to Keith, kicking up sand, and takes out the Altean med kit from a side compartment that Lance had found one long night after a nightmare.

Hunk transforms his bayard and almost circles around Lance and Keith as they take cover. Lance puts his shield up and grabs the back of Keith’s suit.

“I’m here, Keith. I’m here.” Lance starts pulling Keith, around a villager's hut and sets his shield up so they don’t get hit from the side Hunk can’t protect.

Keith all but screams in pain as Lance sits him up. His side flares and burns throughout his body, tightening his muscles causing more pain as his muscles tense.

Lance unclasps the chest portion to Keith’s suit and tears away the under suit around the wound and a little more.

Keith groans and flinches as Lance applies the spray from his small med kit onto the gash that seems to burn red.

Lance takes the Altean gauze out and places it at the top of the wound. The gauze seems to materialize all the way around Keith’s abdomen, wrapping around what Lance can’t reach.

Lance feels his own side tingling and spazzing in pain, must be a bruise from when he was thrown... 

“Hey, Pidge? What is this gauze? It’s like forming by itself.” Lance tightens it a little and finishes up, pulling the undersuit together and places the chest armor on, clicking the clasps together. Keith winces but smiles up at Lance.

“I dunno, Altean stuff is pretty wacky. I tried experimenting on Green’s tracking system but-”

“Pidge, mission now, science stuff later.” Shiro laughs, Pidge sighs and grumbles something about a space grandpa.

Hunk shouts something to Lance and Keith can barely hear what they’re saying through the muddled feeling that’s fogging up his mind. The spray that Lance had used made most of the pain fade. Most, not all.

Keith feels himself sway and he mumbles Lance’s name to get his attention.

Lance looks down at him, waving Hunk away, and picks Keith up. Keith cries out when he stretches his side even in the slightest, and Lance compensates by carrying Keith on his back. It’s harder to hold his bayard but it’s easier and better to carry Keith. Keith’s leg nudges Lance’s side, but the throbbing pain in his side only hurts when Lance has to shift Keith. 

“We’re getting you to Red, there aren’t many Galra left and Coran has a pod prepped for you. Can you fly on your own?” When Keith doesn’t answer, Lance tries getting Keith to focus by tapping his thigh and repeating what he said.

Keith nods his head and lays his head on Lance's shoulder.

Lance pats his head and Hunk comes up to them, still firing at the Galra.

“Lance, we need to hurry. Allura thinks that they might call for more to come in.” Hunk stops firing and points to a ship that’s slowly descending towards the planet.

“What the hell is so important about this planet?!” Lance accidentally bounces Keith as he runs with Hunk for cover.

A sentry shoots Hunk in the shoulder and brings it’s gun down towards Keith’s head but Lance blocks it and shoots the sentry in the chest.

Lance glances around after shoving the dead sentry’s body off of him and shifting Keith more onto his back.

There are still lots of Galra but Lance watches as some of their ships are taking off in the opposite direction from the Castle.

“Hey Shiro, it’s still a little bad down here, but I think some of them are leaving!” Just as Lance yells through the comms, Red roars next to Blue and comes towards them.

“I asked for her to come.” Keith mumbles into Lance’s ear, his breath tickling Lance’s neck.

Lance nods his head, shifting Keith slightly on his back. Hunk yanks on Lance’s arm and pulls him and Keith away from a burning collapsing hut.

Red lands on a group of sentries and Galra, opening her mouth.

Keith taps Lance’s shoulder, sliding off his back with slight difficulty. “Are you gonna be okay without me?” He mumbles quietly as he slides off.

“Of course, love. Just get in a pod before you get yourself hurt anymore.” 

Just as Lance smiles, a Galran ship flies above raining down on them with their purple shots. A shot hits Lance in the shoulder and he pushes Keith into Red, both of them cry out in pain.

“Hey, Red! I know I’m not your paladin, but take Keith back to the Castle!” A fiery emotion tickles at Lance’s mind and Red takes off, Keith screaming Lance’s name.

Allura says something that’s lost in the throes of fighting.

“Lance and Hunk, get back into your lions! We can take care of them in the sky.” Shiro orders them, his voice a little shaky.

“Shiro, it looks like they’re trying to protect or take, I guess, some crystal of some kind.” Hunk shoots toward the large group of Galra. They in turn, blast some sort of cannon at the lions.

The paladins dodge away from the blasts and Shiro warns them not to get hit.

“I believe they are trying to steal this planet's protection core, pretty strong thing it is. If they steal that then this planet will be susceptible to their sun’s chemical fumes. Paladins, the people will die in seconds.” Coran stresses his words, and Lance can almost hear the tears in his voice.

“Also I might add, the planet’s name is Elmonte. Each of their mountains have these protection crystals, but we don’t know how long the Galra have been taking their crystals.” Allura quietly adds on, her voice somber too.

Hunk shoves Lance to the ground as a Galra with a sparking sword dives towards them. Lance quickly takes him out.

“Hey, Coran. Is there some giant mountain here? Or, I dunno, like some kind of giant forest or like a cliff?” Lance’s voice cracks as he asks. He can hear Keith panting on the other side of the comms.

“I do believe there is a magnificent mountain on the farthest other side of that lake, there are even some writings of it in the Castle’s library. I know one of the adventurers that Altea sent to research the mountains on the planet. But Lance, what does that have to do with anything?” Coran questions, his voice still choked up but light.

“Um, it’s nothing. We can take care of it later.” Hunk glances at Lance and nudges his arm, almost like he has the same idea. Or at least knows where Lance is thinking.

* * *

The villagers of Elmonte hold a celebration for the Paladins, Keith is in a pod and Lance tells everyone he’s feeling a little worse for wear so he’s gonna cryopod for a bit then rest. Shiro gives him a worried glance but Allura convinces him that Lance will be fine. Coran even volunteers to stay, claiming that he has things to update and things to fix in the systems.

Shiro reluctantly agrees but asks that Coran at least stays with Lance and not goes to 

Lance can tell Shiro is still worried that he will probably get blown up again, ever since the Arusian incident everyone has almost kept a close eye on him until Keith got hurt.

It was a slight relief but Lance had been getting weird pains throughout his body that didn’t show scars, or they did but Lance wouldn’t be bleeding.

Lance realized it was his soulmate. 

A little too late, Lance thought bitterly. He slowly pulls off his armor, groaning as his muscles pull and twist.

As Lance starts peeling away the under suit, his side flares in pain.

“Oohh, que coño. That quiznacking hurt.” Coran turns to look at Lance, finding him hunched over and pushing at his side.

“Should I get another scan prepared, Number three?” Lance shakes his head, tapping Coran’s shoulder, groaning as he gets back up.

“Don’t worry about it, Coran. But, you can help me rub that muscle relaxer into my legs and arms.” Coran chuckles and starts to help Lance.

“That’s a nasty shot you’ve got there.” Coran points to his arm, helping and guiding Lance to the cryopod next to Keith’s.

Lance watches as the mist comes up, the cold seeping in and Lance slowly closes his eyes.

  
  
  
  


**_I-I don't know what to say to that._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Que coño- What the fuck  
> Oh Lance... It's right in front of your face. And Keith! Kiddo! Stop hurting yourself, you selfless madman! I love you, but take care of yourself!  
> Next chapter = Next week.  
> Hopefully. (。﹏。)  
> I am rewriting a giant part of the next chapter because it doesn't flow well with this chapter and I wanted Lance and Keith to finally talk about stuff... Yeah.  
> Also! Should I stop using swear words and make Shiro start a swear jar??? I kinda like the idea, cause I'll get to write swear words but the characters get punishments.


	12. A Crack In The Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith talk before being disrupted, Hunk realizes Lance isn't telling him everything and Soulmates avoid the truth. In the end, Lance is lost. Oh so very lost. It's scary being controlled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, don't hate on me that this isn't out sooner but I wrote more for this chapter cause I didn't want to cut it in half soooo yeah. Long chapter... 6692 words... I was gonna make it 6666 but I couldn't stop writing... I also got distracted by reading about trees.  
> I think trees are pretty crazy, like they are the oldest things on Earth and they can't die from old age. They can communicate and defend each other. Oh! And I learned that they can give you directions, like in the northern hemisphere, moss will grow on the northern side of the tree trunk, where there is more shade. AND if you live in the north!! The rings of the tree grow slightly thicker on the southern side since it receives more sunlight!!! BUT in the southern hemisphere, it's the opposite!!  
> Man, trees are so cool.

Keith feels his body give a sigh of relief that his side is finally healing up. The pod opens up and Keith instantly closes his eyes, hoping it isn’t the same situation that he was in the day before, or well the night that everyone locked him down in the infirmary.

“Hey, Mullet. Open your eyes, the lights are dimmed. It’s only eight in the morning.” Lance’s voice comes out quiet and something else.

Hopeful? Sad? Upset? 

Keith slowly opens his eyes and only finds Lance in the room. He glances around the room just to make sure.

“Everyone else is still stuck at the celebration thing that the Elmonte people are giving us. They were knocking on the door at like five a.m.” Lance says laughing, slowly taking most of Keith’s weight and starts walking over to Keith’s cot in the room.

Keith finds another cot next to his, but with more stuff tossed on the bed.

On the other cot there’s blue headphones, what seems to be an ipod (or some kind of holographic phone), a couple of food bars, and a blue data pad at the edge.

“Is that your bed?” Keith asks quietly.

Lance nods his head and lifts Keith onto his cot. He rolls his shoulder and feels a painful pulse go through his arm.

Keith flinches and touches his arm too.

“Is something wrong with your arm?” Lance asks as he pulls out the muscle relaxer that Coran had helped him rub into his sore muscles.

“I dunno, it just started hurting…” Keith mumbles and blows a heavy breath out.

Lance walks back over to Keith, moving his things to the side and sitting on his bed.

“Here, let me rub this in. It kinda dulls the pain but you’re less sore afterwards.”

Lance unscrews the lid as Keith peels his shirt off.

Keith’s arm strangely doesn’t hurt as he takes the shirt off but as Lance comes closer, lifting his hand to Keith’s shoulder with a wince, it starts throbbing in pain.

Lance bites his lip and starts rubbing in the cream, he drops his arm and switches to the other.

“Is that the arm that got shot?” Keith places his hand on the arm that Lance stopped using.

“Uh, yeah. It’s not that bad but it isn’t great either.” Lance shrugs his hand off and starts smearing the weird smelling cream.

“Hey, you did great out there though.” Keith chuckles and taps Lance’s leg, then places his hand again on Lance’s arm.

Lance roughly shakes his head. “No, I wasn’t. I let you get hit and you obviously had a panic attack on the field but told you to breathe. Like what the fuck, I didn’t do anything else.”

Keith goes to open his mouth but Lance interrupts him.

“I yelled at you instead of helping you. I should’ve at least got you inside one of those huts, but I didn’t. And don’t even try telling me that it was all I could do because it wasn’t.”

Lance finishes up and pulls his arm from Keith’s grasp, getting off Keith’s bed and sits on his, facing away from Keith.

“Lance…” Keith struggles to get off his bed, body sore and slow, but he reaches Lance’s bed with a couple steps.

“Okay, sure. You could’ve done better but you did keep me from getting more hurt. Lance, I think I would’ve gotten one hundred times more hurt if it weren’t for you.”

“Stop it Keith. I should’ve seen that sentry. He ran at me Keith, he ran at me and I got fucking distracted by that Galra.” Lance shakes his head and keeps his face hidden from Keith’s sight.

“Oh my gosh, Lance. You're our sharpshooter, yes, but you're there solely for that. You're there for backup, to take the shot if needed. And you thought I needed your help, which I did! It's not your job to magically see everything and do everything yourself. The fact that you did on the field is amazing, even if there were some throwbacks, you took care of both Hunk and I!”

Lance licks his lips, the moment suddenly heavy as he looks up and stares at Keith, his eyes are wet and he can feel a tear sliding down his face.

Eventually Keith lets go of Lance's arm and shifts on the bed, but he's still staring at Lance, expression worried– worried in a way Lance can't quite place.

Lance turns his focus back to Keith’s arm, shifting his body on the bed.

Maybe Keith is right; maybe he can't be the eyes of the team all the time. Still, he feels… inadequate somehow, like he's not living up to his potential. That, once again, he's not quite all he could be. But...

“I just wish my soulmate could tell me the same things.”

Keith sucks in a quiet breath, shocked.

“Wha-”

Pidge comes running into the room, dressed in formal attire, cutting Keith off. “SHIRO, ALLURA, AND CORAN ARE STARTING A FUCKING SWEAR JAR!!”

“Well, I guess you’re gonna be out of GAC by the end of the day.” Lance smiles, getting off his bed and pats Pidge’s head.

Pidge shoves him back onto his bed, smacking him repeatedly while screaming. “YOU PROBABLY SWEAR MORE THAN I DO, YOU SHITHEAD!”

Shiro decides to walk in just then and stare at them. His formal attire was probably picked out by Coran, because he keeps shifting the bottom of the shirt.

Shiro points at Pidge and Lance, looking at Keith.

Keith nods his head, as if they were having a silent conversation.

Shiro nods at him and picks Pidge up off of Lance.

“LET GO OF ME, BASTA-” Pidge immediately shuts their mouth as they turn their head to see Shiro.

“Oh, it’s nice to see you too Pidge.” Shiro gives her a smile.

It’s not a normal smile though, it’s the smile where he tilts his head slightly to the side. His eyes slitted, and eyebrows drawn downward. His head dips down to where the top of his eyes are hidden with the bottom of his brows covering them. Lance feels a full body shiver go through him and he looks to Keith, finding him giving the same reaction.

“I want to thank you, Pidge, for personally updating Keith and Lance for me. Oh! And it sounded like you even wanted to add a few GAC to the jar already. Or was I wrong?” Shiro brings his face up back to normal and gives Pidge a small empty smile.

“I hate you so much Shiro.” Pidge elbows him in the side and he drops them. They sit next to Keith on his bed and lean against him.

That sends a spark of anger through Lance but he quickly shakes that feeling away.

“You can’t hate someone until you’ve loved them.” Shiro mocks.

“Then you should be glad I don’t know which room is yours yet.”

Lance waves his hand, “I do! It’s down the hallway. It’s the closest to the hangars, and the training deck ‘cause he basically lives on training. Well not as hard as Keith does.”He laughs, fiddling with the pad on his bed staring at the little game that he found while waiting.

Lance looks up after no one says anything, flinching when he finds everyone staring at him in surprise.

Lance shrinks slightly away from them.

“What? I thought everyone knew where everyone else was already. Don’t we have like a map? Keith’s is next to mine, and we’re pretty close to the training deck too. He wanted my room but I got there first. Anyways! Hunk’s is across from Pidge’s, which is next to the engineering kinda room thing. And Coran’s room is next to Allura’s room, which is closest to the Bridge. I kinda find it funny ho-”

“Lance we’ve only been here for a couple weeks, a month at most. How do you know where everyone is?” Shiro’s eyes are wide and his eyebrows are shot up.

“I dunno, it’s been a month. Wait. You mean, you guys don’t?” Lance’s face screws up in confusion.

“I don’t even think Allura knows where everyone is sleeping. You gotta admit that’s really creepy, Lance.” Pidge laughs lightly and taps their hand against their thigh.

Lance’s eyes widen. “Creepy?” His hands rub at his thighs, laughing harshly acting like it didn’t hurt. 

Keith is staring at Lance and flinches when Pidge speaks back up. He looks at Lance a little more before turning his attention to Pidge.

“Anyways, I didn’t find anything on Matt or Dad, so I’m gonna try asking Coran if there are other quadrants that we can check before Allura finds another distress signal.”

Lance flicks his eyes to everyone in the room, not listening to the conversation that’s still going, stopping to look at Keith.

Creepy. Right. Instead of being worried about everyone he’s creepy. 

Does Keith think he’s creepy too?

“I think Allura said something about a system that sent a signal, but she hasn’t said if it was a distress signal or not.” Shiro shakes his head before 

Is he really- No. No. He’s not. Hunk knows he isn’t, Hunk can tell them.

Lance looks to the ground and shakes his head. He slides off his cot and stumbles away from them and towards the door. 

“Creepy?” Lance mutters under his breath, his chest feels like it’s shrinking and getting harder to breathe, his feet feeling heavy. His hands are all clammy, and his shoulders suddenly feel like there’s an impossibly heavy weight on them.

“Lance?” Keith tries reaching out to him but Lance ignores him and pushes his hands away.

Keith quietly gasps and repeats Lance’s name quietly, more shocked than anything.

“Uh, I think I can hear Hunk calling for me. So, I’m just gonna- um. Go. I’m gonna go help him.” Lance tries smiling but it falls off his face as he clumsily stumbles out as soon as the doors open to his presence.

He ignores hearing the three in the room calling out his name.

The hurt that he can hear in Keith’s voice echoes throughout his head like the ticking from a clock.

* * *

Keith starts trying to get off his bed to follow Lance, but Shiro places a hand on his shoulder and shakes his head.

“Just let him calm down a little, he’s hurt and I don’t think he wants to say anything that might hurt.” 

Keith stares at the door until Pidge slumps onto Keith’s bed groaning.

“I’m such an idiot.” Pidge curls into themselves and places their hands over their eyes. “I forget how sensitive he is to stuff.”

“What do you mean?” Keith stares at them, his chest is tight and his tongue heavy.

“That he’s sensitive? Keith, he’s a kid in a teenagers body. He’s over dramatic because he’s too much to keep in. He never takes things seriously, like everything's a joke to him, and that’s why he doesn’t get paired on solo or duo missions. None of us except for Hunk have paired for a mission with him. He did the exact same things at the Garrison and he wouldn’t have had any friends if it weren’t for Hunk.”

“That was rude of you to say about him, Pidge. I know a lot of students that talked well of Lance.” Shiro looks at her then to the door.

“That’s ‘cause he was a joke to everyone. Heck, I wouldn’t have been friends with him because of most of the rumors that went around.” Pidge scoffs, pulling at the edges of their hair and shifting their glasses. “But those rumors weren’t true and I keep holding them against him. I should be a better friend with him, what kind of fucking friend am I?” Pidge sniffs, letting a couple of tears fall before hiding their face in Keith’s pillows.

Keith pushes off the bed slowly and starts slowly walking towards the door, slightly in pain.

“Where are you going?” Pidge asks in between pillows.

“To be there for him, ‘cause that was pretty fucked up for you to say about him. I don’t care if you’re frustrated about not finding anything about your brother or dad, or the adults making a swear jar, but you shouldn’t be taking it out on Lance. He’s your friend before anything else, not some joke or rumor. At least he tried to cheer you up by telling where Shiro sleeps.” Keith walks past Shiro, patting Shiro’s arm briefly as he passes him.

“I didn’t mean to say it like that, Keith.” Pidge sits up and takes their hands away from their face, looking at Keith. Their eyes are starting to get puffy and red, their nose is starting to dribble and drip.

“I know Pidge. But you shouldn’t be saying it to me, tell Lance if you really mean it.”

* * *

Hunk was cleaning the kitchen with Coran when Lance walked in.

Hunk immediately knew something happened to Lance, from the fake smile on his face and the fake cheeriness as he comes in with. Lance is currently sitting at the table, flicking his eyes around but always coming back to check on Coran and Hunk.

“Number Three, could you reach this spot for me?” Coran says as he turns to look at Lance.

“Couldn’t you just shift so you’re taller?” Lance smiles and rolls his eyes.

“Yes, but it’s easier to ask you to do things for me instead of having to wait a couple of dobashes to grow.” Coran chuckles and then smiles at Lance.

Lance taps his fingers against the side of his thigh in a repeated pattern as he helps Coran, something Hunk realized at the Garrison to be a nervous tick. Pidge was usually the one to call Lance out on it and they all would talk him out of his little spiral. Most of the time it was about his family or him struggling with his grades, mostly small things.

But sometimes it’s big, like the time they had found out his Abuelita was sick.

“Hey, Coran, are you okay with finishing this by yourself? Lance had wanted to show me something after he was out of the pod.” Hunk places his cleaning rag and bottle in the box Coran had brought in.

“I sure can, lad.” Coran gives Hunk a knowing look and continues to clean inside one of the storage compartments.

Hunk quietly walks over to Lance, placing his hand at Lance’s elbow. “Lance?”

Lance looks at Hunk, his eyes flicking over Hunk’s face as if looking for something, then he blinks as if nothing happened and smiles.

Hunk frowns and pulls Lance into a hug, comforting Lance’s slight trembling that Lance hadn’t noticed himself, until he could feel it stopping.

Hunk knows.

Hunks knows his smile is fake, that it doesn’t reach his eyes. 

That it doesn’t light up his face, that it doesn’t make Hunk want to smile too, that it doesn’t light up the room like it usually does.

“Lance…” Hunk slowly starts pulling Lance out of the kitchen and into the hallway.

Lance pulls out of Hunk’s hold, looking down and scuffs the floor with his foot before looking back up to Hunk’s eyes.

“Am I creepy?” Lance whispers, quiet enough that no one else will hear but Hunk and himself.

“What? No, you’re not creepy Lance. Why would- Who told you that ?” Hunk pats Lance’s arm and hugs him to his chest.

“ I’m just worried for everyone, but is it bad for me to worry? Should I back off and stop being so forward? Is it easier for them if I do?”

Hunk vehemently shakes his head. “No no no Lance. You’re just worried, calm down. It’s good to be worried, Lance. It’s great even! Who told you it was creepy?"

“Well they didn’t say being worried is creepy, they said that knowing where everyone slept is creepy.”

“Lance I know where everyone sleeps too, but who told you it was creepy?”

“You do too?! I knew I wasn’t the only one, but I want to ask Allura if she knows where everyone is. ‘Cause she’s lived in the Castle for a while and you’d thi-”

“Lance, calm down. I think she probably does. But if it makes you feel better, we can go ask her right now.” Hunk realizes whatever is bugging Lance won’t completely come out until he’s calmed down.

“Yeah... I’d like that.” Lance takes Hunk’s hand and starts pulling him along.

They find Allura on the Bridge, looking between diagrams and books that are somehow floating on a little table.

Lance- instead of walking in the front- walks behind Hunk, hands holding onto Hunk’s arm.

Allura is looking at one display that shows a large field of what looks like wheat that leads to a massive forest. Tall, tall trees that look so think it creates a scary kind of look to it.

“Um, Allura? Is it okay if we bother you right now?” Hunk knocks on the frame of the door after it slides open.

Allura turns to look at them and smile. “Of course! What can I help you with?”

Lance steps forward -standing at Hunk’s side- looks around the room before finally looking to Allura.

“Um, well. I was wondering if you knew where everyone slept. Sorry, it’s a dumb question. Like just if you know, I’m not asking if you could tell me but I was wondering if you- um, yeah.” Lance cuts himself off, realizing that he’s rambling.

Allura’s eyes widen and she lets out a shocked laugh. “That definitely wasn’t what I thought you were going to say, but yes, I do.”

“Is it creepy that I know too? Or that Hunk does?”

“Of course not. I’m actually proud that you do. How long did it take for you to know?”

“A little over three days- oh, um three quintants I think.” Lance sheepishly rubs the back of his neck.

Hunk laughs. “It took me over a movement and a half.”

Allura nods her head and stands up from her seat before pulling a data pad out from under her stack of books.

“It took me four dobashes to know. Coran brags that it took him seven ticks, I think he’s pushing it though. But can I also say that I’m quite proud of you two for getting Altean time right!” She beams at them, before walking closer to them and giving them hugs. “You don’t know how much it means to Coran and I.”

They nod and hug Allura back before letting her get back to her go back to what she was doing.

They walk out of the room and start heading towards Blue’s hangar.

“Lance will you tell me who called you creepy?”

Lance shakes his head and smiles sadly at Hunk. “I’ve already forgiven them, I know they didn’t mean it.”

“Okay, buddy. Do you want to talk to Blue alone or do you want me to come with you?” Hunk brings his hand up to Lance’s shoulder, pulling him into a hug.

Lance places his head on Hunk’s shoulder and squeezes him tightly, feeling himself relax from the anxious tenseness that had its grip on him earlier.

“I think I’m just gonna sit with her for a little. Are you open to watching some Altean movies later?” Lance pats Hunks arm and steps away, towards Blue.

“Sure, want me to invite Pidge?” Lance shakes his head 

“Nah, they’re probably still busy looking for their family.” Hunk nods his head, watching Lance turn and walk alone towards Blue.

* * *

“I don’t know Blue. I’ve forgiven them but what if they’re right?” Lance idly runs the pen around his palm, the ink swirling around.

He can feel his soulmate slightly peeking in from the connection, and he can feel their worry. For him mostly, as if all of their attention is on him but they’re worrying about another thing.

**You okay?**

Lance stares at the words and feels Blue rumbles next to him, quietly prodding his mind. 

He looks up to her and shifts around until he’s further up on her paw, kicking his shoes off.

“Oh, Blue. What am I going to do?” He shudders a breath, his eyes filling with tears as he kicks at the bag that he had set next to Blue’s paw after the fight with the Galra. Lance had wanted to go to the mountain with Keith, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen.

The bag falls over, laying over his shoes and his data pad.

Blue rumbles and Lance looks back down to his hand, running the pen around and around.

* * *

“Hey Hunk, have you seen Lance?” Keith finds Hunk helping Coran prepare dinner. Keith sits in one of the seats, a pen in his hand.

“Oh! Hey, Keith. I left him with Blue about fifteen minu- dobashes ago.” Hunk looks at the digital Altean clock on the data pad and his voice gets higher when he says fifteen, not really knowing so he guesses.

“But I just went there, Blue was asleep and her shield was up. If Lance was in there she’d be at least a little on.”

Hunk’s eyebrows scrunch together and he blinks a couple times before speaking. “Have you checked his room?”

“I checked there before going to Blue.” Keith could feel himself starting to panic. “Do you think he left?”

“No! Oh heavens, no. He’s probably just walking around the Castle, he wouldn’t leave without someone. Well except if he was with Blue, but you said that she’s still here asleep.” Hunk laughs and shakes his head.

Coran walks up and points at the intercom thing that’s hooked into the ceiling. “If he left then we’d know. We get a ping every time someone leaves or enters in case of an attack or someone trying to sneak on.”

“Then he’s walking?”

“Or he could be hiding, I mean have we actually walked through the whole Castle? We could look through the whole Castle but we won’t be able to talk to each other unless we had our helmets on.” Hunk rubs his chin and looks between Coran and Keith.

Coran laughs and pats Hunk’s back. “I forgot to give you paladins your handhelds, Lance already has his though.”

“Why does Lance already have his?” Coran wags his finger for them to follow him and he leads them to the Bridge.

Allura is still in there and looks up as they come in, she waves to them but goes back to her work.

“Oh! He wanted to talk to someone and everyone was already asleep, so I gave him a handheld. Allura and I talk to him most nights. ” Coran waves to Allura and continues on to the main table, where one of the quadrants is zoomed in and slightly spinning.

“How long ago was this?” Keith watches Allura shift the diagram and displays around.

“I believe it’s been about two movements and four quintants, but I don’t know how much he uses it other than when he talks to Allura and I.” Coran presses a button and the wall slides open, revealing different items.

“How much does he talk to you? Like quintant wise.” Hunk wrings his hands together.

“In the beginning, it wasn’t much, but after he found out that Alteans don’t need sleep like humans do, he started calling more.” Coran taps the wall before looking back to Hunk and Keith. “Lance mostly talks until he falls asleep. I’m surprised you two haven’t noticed his tired state in the morning.”

Keith shakes his head. “Most of us are tired in the morning, I thought he would be the one to go to bed first, beauty care stuff, I mean.”

Coran sighs and looks at Hunk, who starts rubbing his hand against his neck.

“I noticed. At the Garrison, he would usually be the one who woke me up but lately I’ve been the one waking him up. I guess I thought it was him coping with being away from his family.” He sniffs, looking five seconds away from crying.

“It’s not your fault, my boy. He hasn’t been telling all of you, but none of you have tried talking to him. Both sides haven’t been cooperating, which is causing a damper on Voltron. Hunk, it isn’t your fault that he hasn’t been opening up.” Hunk nods and Coran grips his arm before pulling him into a hug.

“I do think that Lance is struggling, but it seems that Lance is feeling rejected- or more of alienated than rejected.” Coran pulls out four hologram handhelds and drops one in both Hunk and Keith’s hands.

Keith feels his stomach sink, almost dropping the high tech phone as Coran hands it to him. “Alienated? But doesn’t that mean he’s being isolated? We haven’t been isolating him though.”

Hunk shakes his head and looks at Coran. “He feels isolated because we’ve been too busy for him.”

At that moment, a pinging noise goes through the Castle.

Allura pulls up the feed from the front of the Castle, but there’s nothing. No one is standing at the front, no ships or life forms. She goes through the other feed and finds Blue’s hatch is open, but Blue is still there, with her shield up.

* * *

“I think I’m going to go check that mountain Coran had mentioned. Well, brought up. Ya’ know, when I couldn’t pay attention to the battle…” Blue sends a rumble of laughter through him and Lance smiles. He starts shifting to get on his side and starts pulling out his pen.

He had put it away when he was reading the documents Coran had shared with him about Elmonte’s mountains and other things about the planet. His data pad is now on the floor, next to his shoes.

“Yes, Blue. Ha ha ha, so very funny. Yeah, I couldn’t pay attention during a fight because of Keith.”

Blue nudges him with her paw, and since she’s so massive, it’s more of a shove. He stops getting his pen out to stop himself from hitting his head against the floor.

“Bluuue! Stop it, I’m trying to get my pen out.” He pats her metal paw with one hand and is finally able to get his pen out with the other.

Lance holds the pen over his arm. “Do you think my soulmate would be annoyed? That I’m only telling him I’m gonna see a mountain? Instead of tell- Instead of answering his question?”

Blue sends a rumbling no through his head and is about to nudge him again with her paw, but Lance jumps away.

“Blue! You’re such a tease! I get it, I’m not annoying anyone, but I still can’t think that I’m not annoying- wait, I can’t _not_ think that I’m annoying.” He shakes his head and sits back down next to Blue. She purrs then lays on the ground, which causes the ground underneath Lance to move. His shoes tip over and slide a little bit from Blue’s moving. He laughs and lays back, feeling a wave of comfort go through him. “Thanks, Blue.”

Blue nudges him and watches him slide on the metal floor.

**_I think I’m gonna hike a mountain._ **

**Oh?**

**_Yeah, I think I am_ **

**For the view or for fun?**

**_Both I guess_ **

Lance gets up, pocketing his pen. He picks up the backpack and places the data pad that he had left on the floor.

A page is opened on the screen showing a massive mountain that is almost like the mountain in Cuba that Lance’s father had taken his whole family to when Lance was still too young to be left alone and still too young to remember most of the trip.

Lance can remember the green, green trees that blanketed the mountain and made a pretty shade from the bright sun. Varadero didn’t really have mountains, it’s mostly flat except for some large hills. But the water surrounding is a dream, a dream that Lance can feel like a memory that replays every night. 

Blue rumbles, bringing Lance out from his thoughts and Blue’s hatch door slowly slides open.

Lance gives her a little wave, walking to the opening and steps out onto the bright green grass.

Lance walks through what seems to be a wheat field that goes on forever. The tall yellow grass is taller than him so it’s harder to see where the end is, he brushes his hand through the yellow grass and watches as the grass in front of him slowly opens a path as he walks. Almost like there are already paths but the grass hides them.

That’s funny to think though, the tall grass separating to lead you somewhere you can’t see.

Lance feels Blue from a distance chuckling and he feels laughter bubbling in his stomach too. It makes him feel light, the grass flows and brushes underneath his chin, which causes him to laugh more.

He keeps walking, a small breeze ruffles his hair, there’s a ruffle in the grass to his right but the grass doesn’t let him turn or stray off it’s determined path. A ringing noise sounds off in the distance to his right and Lance whips his head around to it.

Strangely, the grass lets him start walking that way.

“This is weird, Blue. Something doesn’t seem right to me.” Lance sticks his hand through the grass, but no path opens up. The grass almost seems to weave together, making some kind of thick wall, that Lance can’t shove or wiggle his way through.

Lance huffs and decides to keep walking the path the grass opens up.

“I never thought I’d be walking through sentient grass. Elmonte is so weird, Blue- Holy crow.” Lance looks up to the looming shadow that is suddenly over him and finds a large dragonfly-like bug flying -well it’s more like hovering- above him.

The grass blows around from the dragonfly’s wings. But as fast the dragonfly shows up, it’s gone just as fast.

“Blue! That thing was _GIANT_!! I feel so small! Holy crow!” The grass flutters around Lance, opening up more for Lance.

The grass opens up to tall trees with small bushes scattered around. It seems a little open but is actually pretty dense.

Lance pulls out his data pad and looks up and down, from the forest to the tablet. “Hey, Blue. I think this is the forest that surrounds the mountain.”

Lance feels a vibration in his pocket and takes the orange hologram-screened phone out.

It’s Coran calling him.

He quickly answers it, “Coran?”

“Lance! Thank Altea, that you’re answered! Where are you?”

“I’m on a walk, don’t worry. I found a forest but I don’t think I’m going in. But anyways, I’ll make sure to be back before dinner.” Lance can hear people talking in the background, starting to get louder.

“But there’s twenty dobashes to dinner, Lance! It’s already getting dark!”

“What are you talking about? It’s not even afternoon yet.” Lance looks up to the sky and finds the system’s sun still a couple hours from being in the middle of the sky.

There’s a loud commotion on the other side of the call but Keith’s voice is the loudest, yelling Lance’s name and Hunk’s voice cutting Keith off with something about hating being alone and something that’s dangerous.

Lance rolls his eyes and looks back to the forest. “I’ll be back before dinner, Coran. Go ahead and finish whatever conversation you’re having with Keith and Hunk.”

“No! Wait, Lance!” Coran starts but Lance ends the call.

Lance huffs and feels Blue nudging around through his head, distracting him. He laughs and walks a bit in the grass, watching for any bugs or insects that could remind him of home.

There aren’t any bugs, but there is a little family of alien creatures bouncing around. Lance realizes he should go back to the Castle as he watches them but then looks back to the forest trees.

The trees sway and flow with the breeze running through, the leaves make a noise as the breeze moves them around. They sound like rain, the leaves sound like rain. Lance feels suddenly overwhelmed with happiness.

Lance watches the forest then feels his feet moving, eventually entering the forest.

Little lights float through the trees and along the ground as he walks, almost in a hypnotizing way. Lance feels something trying to push to the front of his thoughts but quickly forgets about it as he sees a little pond.

His handheld vibrates, but Lance doesn’t even feel it. 

The pond has little white flowers surrounding it and they’re emitting a glow from the middle. There are little creatures that look like miniature turtles but somehow mixed with a dragon. Lance listens to them chip and slide into the water as he passes by.

The leaves above him rustle and move with the wind causing more sounds of rain.

“Blue, this is so beautiful.” There’s movement in the corner of his eyesight and he turns to look, gasping as large deer-like animals walk to the pond. He keeps walking as the deer go to the pond.

The bucks have antlers that are massive, all of them have tails that extend with massive feathers.

They completely ignore him and Lance walks past them quietly.

His handheld vibrates again, and again he doesn’t feel it.

The pond grows smaller as he walks, stopping a couple times to look at flowers and other things living in the massive trees.

“Holy crow.” Lance gasps as he continues walking, the forest starting to open up and become less dense. He looks up to the sky and finds that the sun is already on the other side of the midpoint in the sky. He keeps walking, feeling how the ground slowly starts becoming an incline under his feet. He can feel himself huffing and panting when he’s about halfway to the top.

Lance looks up to the sky trying to take a breather and a flock of multi-winged birds fly through the sky above him. He watches as one of the birds stray away from the others and flies above the clouds, gone. It reminds him of-

There’s a rustling from the trees above, the rain noise, it’s so soothing.

It almost makes Lance want to sit down and listen to it forev- But he’s got to get to the top of the mountain first.

There are small bushes around and smaller trees that have little creatures that sound like birds but look like lizards.

Lance looks around as the forest shrinks, the air gets a bit colder, and the sounds become quieter. He feels the breeze that flows through the trees, it’s cold but nice. He can see that he’s reaching the top, the mountain is starting to curve and go back downwards.

Lance slows to a stop and sees the world below. He can see the top of the Castle of the Lions barely reaching over the massive and tall forest. He can see the village that they saved and started helping rebuild, after the party that was held earlier that morning, as they wait for another signal. He can see the other villages that the others helped while he and Keith were in the cryopods.

Lance can see the massive bugs flying in the sky, some are resting on top of the trees and others fly so high that they could reach the stars.

He can’t hear anything, not even the forest.

The only things he can hear distantly, is the breeze moving his clothes.

Lance sits on the ground, the grass green and soft underneath him. He takes his bag off

Once again, his handheld vibrates and this time it lets off a pinging noise.

Lance flinches from the sound, standing up and starts pulling it out.

Instead of Coran calling, it’s Pidge.

The wind whips around him, getting colder and more violent.

Lance pulls his jacket tightly around himself and answers the call.

“Pidge? Is something wrong?”

He hears a sniff from the other side.

“Lance? I’m sorry for calling you creepy, ‘cause you’re not. You aren’t creepy and I’m sorry for hurting you. I know I shouldn’t’ve said those things, so can you please come back?”

Lance is about to answer back when the breeze picks up into gusts of wind hurling towards him.

“I’m on my- Ah!” The wind whips at his hands and pulls him to the opposite side of the mountain, away from the Castle. It’s strong enough to make him fall over and tumble a tiny bit down the mountain, Lance falls into a bush that stops him from going further down the mountain.

“Lance! What’s wrong?! What happened?!” Pidge yells and Lance groans as he sits up.

“I’m fine, I just fell a bit.” Lance winces as he gets up.

Once he’s on his feet, a light trickling sound comes from below.

The forest.

Lance feels his back straighten and his feet slowly start moving towards them, down the hill.

“Lance?” Pidge’s voice is quiet but it pulls Lance out of whatever trance he was in. He immediately stops moving, his foot almost stepping down.

“Something weird is going on Pidge.”

“Where are you? Keith and Hunk are in their lions looking for you. But they said they can’t find you and it’s already been over 4 hours, Lance.”

Lance looks up to the sky and finds that the sun is still only in the middle of the sky.

“How long have I been gone?” His voice is quiet but Pidge can probably hear it shaking and how scared it sounds.

“Lance it’s been almost seven fucking hours since you left Blue’s hangar! You’ve been gone the whole day!”

Blue! He hadn’t felt anything from Blue since the ringing noise in the grass field...

“Seven hours? But I thought Coran said that this planet’s time is the same as Earth’s.”

The wind settles down turning into a breeze again. The trees slightly sway and their leaves swish, sounding like sprinkling rain on pavement. It almost distracts Lance until Pidge speaks again.

“It is Lance! It’s literally so dark right now, I can barely see my hand in front of my face.”

Lance feels dread sinking in, he looks to the sky and the sun stares down at him. He looks at the forest below him and feels the breeze around him. There’s a subtle shift under his feet and he looks down at the ground.

It moves slightly again, moving him slightly towards the forest.

“Pidge I don’t think the Galra are the only thing that attacks the villagers.”

The wind decides to pick up again and starts pushing at him again, trying to get him closer to the trees. The rain sounds louder and Lance can hear the laughter of people. Almost like his family... 

Lance starts walking down towards the forest and feels the decline of the mountain becoming softer under his feet,the grass getting longer. His hand that’s holding the phone begins to feel numb, as if the circulation is cut off leaving an unbearable tingling that starts to hurt the longer he holds the phone.

He can distantly hear Pidge yelling his name and he tries focusing on it, his voice coming out strained and rough.

“It’s trying to lead me back into the forest Pidge! I can’t stop myself and it’s getting harder to focus on your voice. Where are Keith and Hunk?” His voice breaks at the end, a pounding headache emerges as he speaks and he tries bringing his other hand to his head but it doesn’t respond.

“I’m tracking your location right now, they should be close to you! They’re almost there Lance!”

He can hear her panting, she must be running to Green. The headache gets worse the longer he strains to hear her voice.

“Don’t listen to the leaves.” Is all Lance can get out before he feels his hand drop the phone.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**_Can- I have a pen._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you get why I started talking about trees in my top note? The idea I head with the forest and it's leaves comes from a horror story that I read as a kid where the birds in the tree sound like family members so the main character climbed the tree only to find the birds and they kill him... yeah... don't worry I'm not going to kill Lance...... Or am I?ヾ(≧ ▽ ≦)ゝ  
> ALSO!! Don't hate on Pidge, she's still young and in the next chapter (which is a fourth-way done) she has a lot of redemption. I feel like I was too harsh on her this chapter, and I feel super bad and I tried changing some parts but it didn't go along with the story. My sister also got mad at me because of how uncharacteristically I used Pidge... I'm really sorry!!!  
> I'm also going to do a lot more with the swear jar once things starts rolling more with soulmate stuff because I keep wanting stuff to happen but it's still to early and stuff just keeps getting squashed and jumbled up... Yeah.  
> Some of this chapter seems really babyish (mostly the part with Lance and Pidge) but I kinda like the idea of Lance and Hunk lifting each other up, relying and being open with each other, but with some things held back on Lance's side. 
> 
> (If you read this far, I applaud your enthusiasm. Also!! what is something you want a character to say and why? ((I might put it in))


	13. Um... Mr. Deer?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lost are found one way or another and there's a sudden revelation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS SOOO LATE!!! I wanted things to not sound like a three year old telling a story but I think I kept rambling on... o(><；)oo  
> Thank you for waiting patiently!! I think next chapter will be a lot longer but it definitely won't take as long as this chapter did...

Pidge blinks, shocked for a minute before feeling a sob leave their mouth when Lance’s phone signal goes out. Lance stops responding even when Pidge yells his name, and they suddenly stop; they could hear faint steps walking away from the phone.

Their eyes fill with tears as they turn to their helmet and shove it on, yelling to Hunk and Keith. “He’s walking away from his phone! He isn’t-I think something is trying to control him!”

Keith screams in frustration, his fists coming down on Red’s dashboard. “What did he say? Did he say anything about what is taking him or where?”

“No, nothing. He only said not to listen to the leaves. The wind was pretty loud so it was kind of hard to hear him. Didn’t you get my message?”

“Yeah, we’re nearing the signal right now.” Hunk sniffs, his eyes are wide and watery.

“Team, let’s calm down. Nothing is going to happen to Lance, we’re going to get him back and probably take care of whatever is trying to control Lance.” Shiro calmly starts, but his actions say otherwise as he makes Black go faster.

“Pidge, what was it that Number three told us not to do?” Coran asks, sounding breathy and light like he’s running around.

“Not to listen to the leaves.” Green reaches the forest, lowering next to the tracking signal and Pidge jumps out, running.

Green continues to land, setting down between Black and Yellow. Red is on the other side of Black, each of the lions are touching shoulders. How Green decided to land between Yellow and Black was not something Pidge should be thinking about right now.

Keith and Hunk look around through the trees. While Shiro, holding Lance’s phone, calls out his name. They all ignore the way the wind almost pushes them around, pushing and pulling them in different directions but they all stick together.

“Paladins, block out any noise from outside. Anything other than your comms should be turned off.” Allura orders, sounding breathy too.

“That’s insane! What if we can’t hear Lance? Or other things trying to attack us?!” Hunk yells, worrying his lip between his teeth.

“Allura, I think we need to go in _with_ the noise. Pidge, do you think we can block out just the trees?”

“I haven’t done any programming on our helmets, I didn’t think we’d need something like this becau-”

“It’s okay, Pidge. What helped Lance when he talked to you?” Shiro cuts them off before looking up to the treetops.

There’s a subtle breeze but not enough to make the leaves move.

“I don’t know! He would stop talking and I’d try to get him to respond by talking. But sometimes that didn’t even work! He dropped his phone, Shiro! We don’t know where he is!” Pidge waves the tracking device in front of Shiro before throwing it to the ground.

“We’ll just need to constantly be talking to each other, right?”

“That’s what seemed to help Lance, but Shiro it will stop working! Even with me talking to him, he could still hear the trees!” Pidge yells and throws their hands in the air.

“That doesn’t matter right now! We need to be looking for him! Not just talking about it!” Keith yells at them and summons his bayard. He stares at the ground before following some path that only he can see, running.

“Keith! What are you doing?!”

“He’s this way! There are footprints going into the forest!”

Pidge whips around, looking down at the ground all over.

There’s nothing, no traces of footprints or pieces of clothes on the ground. No heat traces or anything to go off of.

“What fucking footprints?!”

“Language!” Shiro shakes his head.

* * *

Lance doesn’t know how long he’s been walking, the leaves sound like laughter.

The small giggles of Nadia and Sylvio as he tickled them, the loud laughter of Marco, the chuckles Papa would let out when Lance tried climbing him like a tree.

Lance feels a tear fall as he remembers Papa’s funeral.

Papa’s funeral… 

Wait. What?

Papa’s laughter?

Lance lifts a hand to his face, shaking his head as a headache starts.

What is he doing? Pidge said he was missing for-

How long did she say?

Lance feels like a puppet whose strings have been snipped, his whole body just slacks and loosens.

“Ohhh, what the fuck.” The headache gets really bad before disappearing entirely.

The leaves stop their dancing in the wind and the wind stops too like… like something is blocking it from coming in.

Lance laughs at the thought of it but stops.

What if something is, though?

Lance shakes his head and hands out, his arm twinges slightly, trying to get the feeling back into them.

As he’s shaking his hands, he looks around. He can sort of remember where he’d come from but he can’t see a path or any sort of marks that he can remember.

The Blue Paladin frowns at the ground, he should’ve at least tried to drag his feet or tried to drop anything along the way. He lifts his hands, his phone isn’t in his hand and he can’t remember dropping it. All he can remember is telling Pidge not to-

A large deer walks into view scaring him from his thoughts. He scrambles back, falling to the ground and the stag just stares at him.

It calmly walks to where he was standing and tilts its head.

“Wow, you are so much cooler up close.” Lance slowly gets up from the ground, putting more weight on his good arm, as not to scare the giant animal that could possibly kill him with it’s massive antlers.

It’s eyes are dark blue, like the blue that comes at the ending of a sunset. Its body is brown, a darker brown with a red-ish hint to it. The buck is quite pretty, why is it alone?

“Where are the rest of your herd?” Lance looks around, not finding any other deer or any sign of a herd around.

Lance looks around trees and steps around a couple, still finding nothing.

“Are you alone too?” The stag just stares at the Blue Paladin, not moving. Then it makes the slightest movement with its head; yes, it was alone too.

Lance lifts his hand, using his bad arm without realizing, and the deer takes a step forward, bending its head down. Taking that as a sign of obeisance, Lance rubs his hand over the course but light coat. He doesn’t realize he’s moving down the deer until his hands go over a large scar. Lance hesitates, it looks like a star burst against the stag's back.

Almost like mine… Lance slowly lifts his gaze up to the deer’s eyes.

Lance takes his hand back, rubbing his bad arm absently and stares openly at the stag.

It’s eyes seem somber and dull, but it butts it’s head against Lance’s side and nudges him to the left.

It turns away and takes a couple steps forward before looking back at Lance.

Oh.

Is he waiting for Lance to follow?

Lance takes a couple steps forward, the buck turns back around and starts walking.

Well that answers that question.

* * *

“Keith! What are you looking at?” Shiro runs up to Keith’s side and stares at the ground, there isn’t anything noticeable on the ground to be anywhere close to a footprint.

“You don’t see it?” Keith points at a spot on the ground and everyone looks at him.

“See what?!” Pidge yells and Keith groans and goes back to following some path.

There’s a slight breeze but not enough to make any difference to the paladins.

Keith feels strangely out of place, he can see the footprints. The footprints are like right in front of his face! They’re tinted blue and have little blue dust floating up from them. Wait…

“Allura are you seeing the footprints?”

“I’m not but Coran is trying different filters- What is that?” Coran gasps loudly and tugs on Allura’s shoulder. “Keith, are you seeing blue particles? Or blue specks?!” Allura’s voice is rushed, tugging at Coran's shirt.

Keith bends down and tries scooping the blue dust up, but it just floats around his hand. He looks up to see Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro staring at his hand. “Yeah, it’s like blue dust but I can’t hold it, it floats around my hand.”

Keith stands up and keeps following the path. He looks back and finds that all of them have some sort of path behind them too. All being different colors. “Wait, all of us have a path too. Allura what is it?”

Coran bumps Allura out of frame and laughs at her grunt. “I believe that is scent tracking! You are quite literally tracking Lance with his smell!”

Hunk fiddles with his fingers while Pidge just gaps at Keith. Keith shakes his head and keeps following the path.

Another path of dust joins the light blue path. But instead of light blue, it’s a dark and thicker blue. The light blue dust floats around the darker blue, almost like it’s staggering or like a curious baby animal following its mother.

Keith chuckles, Lance must be looking around while still trying to follow the other being.

“Are you saying that Keith can track Lance?! Like a dog?” Hunk asks as he pulls out his bayard.

“Or a cat.” Pidge adds quietly. They look up at the trees and watch as the leaves slowly move. “Shiro, I think we need to do something about the wind coming into the forest. We can’t be distracted by the leaves.”

Allura scoffs and then mumbles something to Coran, who nods and walks out of frame.

Keith stares at all of them like they had all grown multiple heads. “I’m not a dog.” He looks over to Pidge and sighs, “Or a cat.” He adds mutely.

Shiro stares at him before turning away and looking around the forest. “Allura is it possible to use the lions and the Castle to block any breeze or wind from coming into the forest? I don’t know how we’ll be able to stop it from coming over, but is it possible?”

Coran comes bouncing into frame and nudges Allura with his hip. “Already taken care of Number One. The Castle is blocking a substantial amount of the wind, the lions are actually in a good position-”

An alarm blares through the comms.

A distress signal from the village.

"Paladins! Since all of you are in the forest, I will go to the village while The Princess protects the Castle." Coran smiles and turns the comms off.

“Of fucking course.” Pidge mutters under their breath. They turn to Shiro, who looks more annoyed than upset.

"Language! Just because we aren't in the castle, doesn't mean you won't have to pay up!" Shiro huffs and turns to Hunk. “Hunk, you and I will go take care of the village with Coran.”

"But-" Hunk begins but Shiro raises his hand, silencing him.

Shiro turns to Pidge and Keith, frowning at the forest behind them. “Pidge, both you and Keith will keep searching for Lance. There will be wind coming in so take extra care. Try your hardest not to listen to leaves.” Shiro turns towards the direction they had just come from and sighs.

Pidge rolls their eyes, "Yes, dad." Then they leave with Keith into the forest.

* * *

The trees seem to be getting thinner as Lance walks with the stag, little lights float up and down around them as they walk.

“So, um- Mr. Deer? Where are we heading? I’m not complaining because I really do enjoy your company, but I think I need to get back.” Lance brings his hand to the stags back.

It leans into Lance’s hand -almost like it’s touch starved- and keeps walking.

Am I touch starved?

A branch snaps far behind them and they both swing their heads backward.

“Do you know what that was?” Lance whispers, moving closer to the buck and bringing his hand to its antlers.

There’s another snap and Lance looks up to the treetops, the leaves slowly start moving and swaying.

“The breeze is back. I think I can tear my shirt and wrap it around our ears, but I might have to stuff some in your ears. Is that alright?” Lance hears a large breaking sound, like branches are being forced down until they break.

The stag brings it’s head towards Lance, bumping his chest and nodding its head slightly.

The cracking gets louder and closer, it makes a chill go down Lance’s back.

“Man, you are such a smart deer.” Lance looks down to his shirt and the body suit that he had kept on under his clothes, to get warmer in the frigged medbay.

The deer nudges him, causing Lance to yelp, turning its head down in the direction to its back.

Lance glances through the trees towards the sound of the breaking of branches.

Lance’s hands start to sweat and he rubs them against his legs.

“You want me to get on?” A nod. “Are you sure, you know, with your back?” Lance places his hand on the scar that reaches the deer’s neck. The stag nudges Lance harder and Lance huffs before trying to get on. It takes a few tries before the deer seems to understand that Lance isn’t tall enough to get on, it bends down enough that Lance can finally jump and pull himself up.

It’s actually a lot like horseback riding, well if the horse was a giant deer that’s probably taller than both Shiro and Pidge together.

The stag starts moving and Lance is able to get used to it after a bit.

The leaves start moving more and Lance looks down to his sleeves. They should be long enough that Lance can stuff a bit in the buck's ears and still have enough to wrap around both his and the deer’s heads.

“Just the sleeves…” Lance mumbles as he pulls at the body suit’s sleeve, his injured arm starting to burn from the pull, the sleeve finally tears enough for him to rip off and he does the same to the other sleeve.

He tears both of the sleeves lengthwise in half and carefully stuffs the two halves of the first sleeve into the stag’s ears. Then taking his other sleeve, Lance ties one side of the halves together and starts wrapping it around his head.

“Wow, that actually worked better than I thought it would.” Lance can feel the breeze against his arms get stronger. He looks up and watches the leaves shake around and is not able to hear any of it.

Lance sighs in relief but yelps as he feels the buck picking up its pace. Lance looks behind him and catches a glimpse of red through the trees. He turns his head back forward and can see the end of the forest, the trees are really thin now.

“We’re almost there buddy.” Lance whispers even though he knows it won’t hear him.

Something snags the back of Lance’s shirt and he falls off the stag’s back.

Hard.

Hard enough that the wind is knocked out of him and his arm screams in protest. His head/ear wrap had shifted slightly in the tumble.

Lance blearly and frantically looks around, fixing the wrap, the stag had skids to a stop and is now running back to him. Lance feels something press against his back and he jerks forward, flipping around to-

To find Keith.

Keith.

Lance lets out a breath and smiles, starting to stand up but stops when he really looks at Keith’s face.

“Keith?” Lance gasps for breath, finding Keith’s eyes duller than the light purple that usually pulls at his heart.

Wait, what?

Keith starts to bring a hand to Lance’s face, but is shoved to the side.

The deer is standing tall over Lance, Keith grunts and growls as he gets up. He rips his helmet off and throws it to the ground.

“Don’t hurt him! It’s the leaves! Don’t you remember? The leaves are controlling him!” Lance gets up with some help from the deer.

The buck sways a little and flinches -standing stock straight- as another being comes closer through the trees. Lance gaps as another deer appears and staggers towards them. The other deer is darker, almost black. 

Because Lance and his stag are distracted, they don’t see Keith pouncing at Lance. He hits Lance roughly to the ground, slightly knocking the breath out of him again, but Lance quickly scrambles out of his hold.

Lance hears more crunching of branches from where Keith had come from and finds Pidge.

“No. No no no no! Please, not Pidge! I-” Pidge cuts him off before he can go on.

“Shut up, Lance! I’m really not in the mood for your dramatics. First, Keith fucking runs off without me. Then my head started feeling wishy washy and then the leaves started swaying and everything has just gone to crap and- and it’s all because I’ve been an awful friend and said a lot of things that were hurtful, to you.”

Keith jumps at Lance again, but Lance side-steps before Keith can grab onto him. Keith rolls as he hits the ground, he’s right in front of Lance.

There’s a huffing from Lance’s right and he turns to look, finding the lighter stag just staring at the rich dark buck.

The lighter one takes a step towards the darker stag and makes some sort of sniffing noise. It huffs and lets out a soft _err_ sound. The darker stag takes a step forward and tilts its head down, taking careful steps to the lighter buck

Then suddenly a force hits Lance and he hits the ground with Keith holding him around his middle.

“Lance!” Pidge yells and pulls out their bayard.

“No! Don’t! It’s okay, Pidge. He isn’t hurting me.” Keith just holds him, not squeezing or anything.

He’s only wrapped around Lance.

 _Almost like a koala_ … Lance laughs at the thought, but quiets down as Keith holds him tighter.

“Wait, Pidge. Why aren’t you acting the same way he is?” Lance lifts his gaze from Keith to Pidge.

“That’s what I don’t know. I came in running after him and I heard the leaves just like he did but all I could think of was getting you back to the castle. Then Keith started acting weird and started sprinting. I kinda felt that you were in a certain direction and my feet seemed to walk on their own.” They look down at Keith then back up to Lance.

“What were you thinking about when you first started hearing the leaves?”

Lance looks down at Keith, Keith presses his face against Lance’s chest with a soft sigh. “Wasn’t much in the beginning, I was mostly thinking about the mountain and.. And how- Anyways there was a pond. Or a lake? I don’t know, but all these animals started showing up and-”

Keith jerks and starts pushing away from Lance, his eyes more focused and bright. “Lance! You’re okay!”

Lance rubs his arm, smiling as he nods his head at Keith. Keith helps him stand and Pidge quickly gathers them into a hug. A very rough and boney hug.

“Wow Pidge! if I didn’t know any better, I’d think I’d be hugging a stick!” Lance laughs as Pidge elbows him in the side after pulling away from their group hug. “Ow. That hurt, you little gremlin.”

“Anyways- Woah! What are those?!” Keith stumbles over to the large pair of deer standing a few feet away from them.

“I’m actually surprised. Pidge, I thought it would be you reacting all amazed at the deer.”

Pidge shakes their head and points to a deer that Lance hadn’t seen earlier. “I think the forest made them, to help us cope or something. They’re like deer copies of ourselves, that’s why they have the same scars as we do.”

“Yeah, I saw that too. I kinda thought it was just some severe coincidence though.” Lance laughs and looks at the deer Pidge had pointed at.

It is closer to the other two stag, moving around them like an excited little puppy. It’s a little smaller than the other two bucks but it’s missing the tall antl-

“Wait! If they are copies of ourselves then-” He takes a couple steps closer to Pidge and rubs his hands together.

“Yep. Yeah. I know Lance.” Pidge cuts him off, taking a few steps back and shaking thei- her head.

“Do you wanna tell me about it or later?” Lance whispers, he shifts closer and gently grips her wrist, light enough that she can easily slip out of the hold if she wants to.

“Yes. I’d like to keep that a secret until I’m comfortable to tell everyone though, so don’t say anything about it after.”

Lance nods his head and pulls her into a hug. “Thanks, Pidge.”

Then after a beat-

“Does anyone else know?”

Pidge sighs and glares at him. “I don’t think so, but Allura probably does because of the mice.” She grumbles the last part and looks back to Keith, who’s running his hand down the darker buck’s back.

Lance takes a step forward to touch the lighter buck but sighs and looks back to Pidge. “Where are Hunk and Shiro? Are they looking for me too or are they lost in the forest?” 

“Oh shit! Keith! We have to get back!” Pidge quickly grabs his helmet off the ground and unceremoniously shoves it onto his head.

“Fuck you too, Pidge.” Keith fixes his helmet and looks back to the deer one more time before they leave. The deer watch them leave and Keith can’t help but feel the want to stay a little longer.

Lance nudges him and jerks his head to the side. Keith scans around the forest before finding a small group of deer heading towards the three.

“They really are copies of ourselves…” Lance smiles and nods his head before patting Keith’s arm and catching up to Pidge.

  
  
  


**_ Oh my- Keith! We're- Oh my god!_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will admit that I did get distracted with deer this time... I kept trying to find noises that deer make but most of the sounds that they make are either warnings or umm mating stuff... yeah. I also found out that all fawns have spots which was a little difficult to write Pidge in but I eventually decided to make her deer older so that you can tell the difference without me having to write about genitals...  
> Deer Keith is a Melanistic black deer, Deer Lance is a White-tailed, Shiro is probably a Boreal Caribou, Hunk is an Irish elk (they are extinct now but they were the biggest deer I could find...), and Pidge is a Key deer (They are soo teeny tiny)  
> But man! I spent soooo long reading about deer and the different types, also the noises they make. It's super interesting tbh.


	14. Hush Little Baby, Don't You Cry.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was about three hours before Lance and Keith finally left Blue.  
> Allura gives them assignments to help around, Keith switching his with Lance’s after Lance starts to tear up again. Keith's voice shakes as he tells her that he’d rather help Shiro instead and Coran would have better use of Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied. This took way longer to make and I had soooo many distractions. This is sort of my main focus but I will admit that I do get distracted kinda quickly because of my ADHD. I promise that I'm writing as much as I can but man I get sooo distracted when I get update emails from other writers... yeah.

Blue grumbles through Lance’s head, nudging and pushing around like a cat with objects on a table. Lance can feel her more now that he’s out of the forest and remembers the way how she’d tried to get him out of his daze. It was like dropping a stone into a moving river, no ripples would happen but now his mind was like a still lake and Blue’s constant moving was like a small child throwing handfuls of pebbles in.

“I get it, Blue! You can stop now.” Lance grumbles as he shoves his helmet on. He runs up her ramp and they quickly join Pidge and Keith to the village.

The village is absolutely destroyed, the homes that the people once lived in are in tatters, not even the walls of some of the buildings are intact. There’s rubble covering the ground as if a massive explosion had happened, and maybe there had been.

Lance doesn’t want to look too hard, but even glancing at one of the homes, he can see a small body reaching up as if a savior would come and help them out. Another body covering a smaller but neither of them surviving the destruction that had hit so hard on their village.

The thought makes it a little harder to breathe.

“ _Fuck_.” Lance chokes, his voice shaking and Pidge agrees with a small noise.

“Okay listen up, there aren’t many Galra like last time, but it seems they did bring some type of gun. So be careful of that.” Shiro grunts from a blast shot to Black’s side. Keith comes up behind him and slams the tailing ship into the ground.

Lance always worries about the cities and villages they leave; would the Galra come back? Would the people and their families still be safe after Voltron eventually left? The thoughts always haunted him after they left to another planet but with this planet, Voltron hasn’t even left and the village is being attacked again.

Lance can hear the screams of the village’s people; Children crying for their mothers and people screaming for each other. 

He dives after a Galra, slamming it into the ground before it gets too close. The ship crumples underneath Blue’s paws and Lance attacks another ship as Red slams into the ground behind him. 

“The Galra seem to be focused on getting the planet’s main core.” Coran’s voice filters out the blasts and the screams in the background, giving all of the paladins something to distract them from the sounds.

“Wait, you mean the crystal? What does it even do?” Hunk grunts as he body slams Yellow into a Galra carrier.

“Yes, the crystal. I suppose the Galra want it for its energy source. There aren't many crystals like this one anymore, it carries most of the planet’s living source. Taking it would leave the planet sickly, the plants and creatures living here would die at an exponentially faster rate. The planet will die in a matter of quintants.” Coran explains. His voice getting heavier near the end before having to look away to wipe at his eyes.

“Alright, guys.” Lance snickers and Pidge glares at him as Shiro continues, “I need Keith and Hunk to head towards the crystal. Protect it at all costs, Pidge and Lance will use their beams and keep them back. Lance, I need you to try and create an ice barrier around them. I’m going to keep in the back, don’t space out. I need you all on alert.”

Lance nods and follows behind the two, keeping the Galra from getting any closer. Pidge comes up next to him and blasts a few ships, turning them into plants and vines.

As they get closer to the mountain, Lance can already tell there were villagers trying to protect the crystal…Hunk gasps, Lance can barely hear it but it’s still there.

“Pidge and Lance turn back around, don’t look.” Keith mutters and tries positioning Red, but eventually the two see.

Lance doesn’t know why until he gets closer himself, finding the worst.

Alien guards litter the ground, villagers in white clothing lay there, and worst of it all are the children, they seem herded into a close circle and covered by adults to protect them.

But it didn’t seem to work.

“Holy fuck.” Pidge whispers in horror. Hunk tries to keep composed enough but eventually he cries.

Some have their mouths dropped open, others are blank faced. Blue blood dripping from their mouths and the scattered wounds throughout their bodies.

Pieces of their clothes are black and scorched from the Galra’s guns. The white of their clothes dyed blue from the blood that seeped from their bodies.

You can tell they cried from the tear tracks that run down most of their faces, mostly the children.

They all must’ve been so _terrified_.

Lance looks at one of the little alien girls and his hands shake over Blue’s controls.

Her little curls around her face, her small doe-like eyes wide open. Blood running down from her hair line and from her mouth… 

The little girl looks so much like- so much like- like- like... Maria.

Lance sobs and pulls a heavy hand up to his mouth. His eyes burn and burn and burn, finally releasing his tears.

His hand jerks to the control panel and pushes multiple buttons before hitting the mute button.

“Shiro.” Keith starts, he sounds tired, resigned and so full of hatred.

“I know. But right now, we need to protect the crystal.” Shiro’s voice is rough, his shoulders are sagged and his knuckles white from gripping Black’s controls so tight.

The paladins were never so happy to kill.

* * *

The crystal slides back into the ground, the protection going back up.

The last of the Galra couldn’t even escape Red and Black’s fury.

They land next to the village, a circle of people shouting and smiling. Happy. Or as happy as you can be when your home is destroyed and most of their family is hurt, or well... dead. Parts of the village barely even have a full house, most of the village is destroyed. The only building that seemed most intact is the village council hall, but even then it is too small to fit all those who survived. 

Lance stays in Blue while everyone else leaves their lions.

He had muted himself after seeing the small alien girl and hadn’t thought of turning it back on during the fight.

There’s a distant and small knock against Blue’s paw.

Keith is standing outside of her, grim frown to his face. He scuffs the dirt with his foot while he waits for a response, looking around then back to Blue’s head.

Blue purrs to Lance and without saying anything, Blue moves around him like a blanket as she lowers her head to the ground.

Her mouth opens quietly and Keith quickly rushes up the steps into her cockpit.

Lance is curled up, his arms around his legs with his face covered with his knees beneath the dashboard, crying. Sobbing. His breath raspy as he tries to breathe between hiccups.

Keith worries his lip between his teeth and sits next to Lance. He brings a hand up to Lance’s shoulder and Lance all but falls into him. His cries grow louder and harsher, his body shaking with every sob.

Keith brings him closer into his arms and just holds him.

* * *

It was about three hours before Lance and Keith finally left Blue.

Allura gives them assignments to help around, Keith switching his with Lance’s after Lance starts to tear up again. Keith’s voice shakes as he tells her that he’d rather help Shiro instead and Coran would have better use of Lance.

Coran and Lance go around patching up and helping the injured while Keith and Shiro help collect the bodies. Pidge and Hunk help in what ways they can, rebuilding and setting up small living units with the abled villagers. Three of the council members went with Shiro and Keith to help name the bodies and count the amount of alive they had left.

As they are finishing things up on the planet, a recorded message is sent from the villager’s leader, filled with hurt and betrayal.

“You said you would stand by us, that you would keep my people safe.” The Elmonten leader snears at them, “This is the second time we’ve been attacked. You sent only two of your paladins and your advisor to help us. You didn’t even try to send all of your lions for Voltron.”

“And we have! We protected all those who we could, the availability of my paladins was not our fault. You never told us the state of your forest, it being able to control and influence the wills of the mind.” Allura frowns and turns to look at Lance before looking back at the alien leader.

“Did you ever ask? I thought it was not important with the history of the forest helping those who are lost. If you had thought for your paladin's well-beings then you might’ve thought ahead.”

“Now wait-”

“Don’t, Lance. Let him speak.” Allura cuts Lance off and gives him a firm stare before it’s interrupted by the village’s leader.

“You let your paladins speak out of turn,” The alien sneers. Lance flinches and bows his head, looking to the ground. “Princess, the forest is for healing and comfort. I would think that with your Altean advances, your paladins would be in better health and mental state.”

The leader frowns and looks around him at the destruction around him. “Just because Altea is long gone, doesn’t mean I want Elmonte to die too. I accept and take part in the alliance but I will not help the fight.” The alien growls and ends the transmission.

“Princess-” Coran starts but Allura cuts him off too with a lift of her hand.

“Paladins, finish installing the protection around the planet then get ready to leave the system.” Allura turns away and leaves the control room.

* * *

To better insure the planet, they set up a security and protection that Pidge, Hunk, and Coran had created to the best of their abilities. They also set up a beacon that could send for help the fastest to the Castle. Some of the villagers helped set them up and Pidge taught them how to fix it in case anything were to happen and how to call for help.

The second they finished Allura had them docking the Castle, ready to leave.

“Coran, I was wondering about the forest at the base of the mountain. How did it control us and then suddenly not be able to?” Lance quickly steps up to Coran’s side, helping him carry the containers into the Castle.

“I would think it had to do something with the Galra attacking. It is a large possibility that the forest was trying to protect the organisms inside and keep things unwanted out. It is quite possible that the forest knew you weren’t there to harm and let you free.”

“But that wouldn’t make any sense, if the forest knew we- Oh. I guess it could.”

Pidge laughs somewhere behind him and he tries to look around to find her but ends up whacking his chest against the box that they’re carrying towards Green’s hangar. Coran winces and they set the box down; Lance immediately starts rubbing his fingers to the throbbing spot on his chest.

“Screw off Pidge. Not all of us are child prodigies with brains like Einstein.” Pidge comes up behind him and slams her hand against his back.

“Yeah. I noticed.” She laughs again but cuts off when Allura walks down to them.

There’s hesitance in her stance and a slight frown to her lips, causing Lance to think the worst.

“Lance, could I talk to you for a tick?” Her usual royal confidence is there but slightly broken with her hands wringing in front of her. 

“Of course, Princess.” Lance nods his head, his voice cracking at the end, and follows her as she lifts her hand towards the Bridge.

* * *

Keith sits next to Shiro with a Space-Caprisun (Lance started calling them that after Pidge mentioning their fruity flavors) in his hand, not saying anything. There’s nothing he can say to Shiro after the way he acted throughout the week because he knows there isn’t any asking for forgiveness for his actions. Instead, though, Keith shuffles a little closer and he places the other drink next to Shiro’s side and Shiro drags in a breath, looking more tired than before. Shiro exhales shakily before looking over to Keith’s face.

“Why?”

“Why not?” Keith answers back, not looking at Shiro, unable to bring himself to be embarrassed or ashamed for all the things he’s done. Shiro, who looks more upset and frustrated but taking a deep breath and picks up the fruity drink. “Why can’t I-'' Keith stops himself, groaning at the tight feeling that starts to seep into his throat.

“Why can’t you what?” Shiro asks, and Keith can’t look at him, he can’t look Shrio in the eyes when he finishes.

“Why can’t I give my life for a cause?”

Shiro frowns and slides a hand down his face before giving Keith a hard stare. “Because Keith. We still need you and you shouldn’t have fought injured. You made more rash decisions in the field while injured than you’ve done at a hundred percent!”

“The team needed my help. I couldn’t just stand by, while everyone was getting hurt and struggling.” Keith figures if he’s made it this far he might as well make a deeper hole for himself, hands gripping the drink packet. “I couldn’t lose another person.”

Shiro blinks at him for a minute before Keith can see it click in his eyes. “You aren’t going to lose anyone else, Keith. You have everyone helping you and each other. Your soulmate seemed pretty stressed before you went in the pod.”

Keith exhales and looks down to the drink in his hands, something warmer replacing the tight feeling because of Shiro’s words. “They don’t seem worried now…”

Shiro swats the back of his head, Keith’s drink pack falling to the ground, then pulls out a pen from his armor’s clip. 

Keith wonders if he’s always carried it around with him, the pen looking worn down and scratched up.

“Did you answer back after your time in the pod? You know that your words disappear after being in a pod! The words don’t last forever and you’re just making it worse by waiting for them to write first!”

Keith rubs the back of his head snatching the pen from Shiro’s hand.

“No- wait, the pod erases them?”

“Yeah? It cleans off the skin and cleans the wounds before starting any of the healing process.” Shiro frowns and looks down to Keith’s arm before looking back up to his face.

Keith stares back.

_Does-Does that mean there’s still a chance that Lance could be his soulmate?_

Shiro nudges his shoulder and nods to Keith’s arm.

Keith manages to take the cap off, the back of his head still stinging, and places the tip to his open arm.

**Are you busy?**

“That’s all you’re going to write,” Shiro states in disbelief, “you were beat up and exhausted, and all you write is ‘ _are you busy?’_ Keith. You need to write more than just a feeble three words.”

Keith grunts, already knowing where this is going.

“Your soulmate would write paragraphs for you and you only send them the bare minimum- and don’t tell me they didn’t write that much, because if there’s anything I know more than I should, it’s that you hide those paragraphs like they’re some plague, which is fucked up Keith.”

Keith’s eyes widen and his mouth gaps like a fish. The pen in his hand drops to the ground and Keith coughs, embarrassed, as he picks it back up. “You swore.”

Shiro sighs, frowning as he sips the rest of his drink, and setting it down between his legs. “That’s all you got out of that? I tell you to step up but you’re being unusually resistant to even the least bit of writing to your soulmate. You already said it wasn’t a problem anymore, and I’m not going to ask you to spill all of your secrets, but kiddo, this isn’t going to end well with how you’re acting.”

Keith scowls and gets up, knocking over his drink pack.“You don’t know anything.”

“Yes. I do, Keith. I know more about soulmates than you do. I’m a teacher, for heaven's sake!” Shiro sighs and pulls Keith back down to sit next to him again. “The emotions you feel when writing flow through your bond but the scars and bruises you get will flow your emotions too. But it goes both ways, the pain your soulmate feels or whatever they’re feeling will be sent straight to you.”

Keith puts his head in his hands. “I know about the pain, Shiro, and I know emotions and stuff are passed through.”

Shiro stares at him then places a hand on his back, not forceful or rough but comforting and light. Like if he’d press any harder Keith would break like glass. “Then why are you denying your soulmate?”

“Shiro, you…” Keith has this bewildered look on his face, but as Shiro watches, the tension around his mouth grows enough that Shiro starts to see the frown getting deeper and tears welling up in his eyes. “Remember how you took me in after Suzan said she didn’t want me anymore? Remember the first time you met me, I was hit by my teacher?”

“Keith, your soulmate won’t hurt you!” Shiro stresses.

Keith glances in Shiro’s direction, not that he can see him behind his hair, but something about that tone niggles at the back of his head. He feels a shudder work up through his body and his eyes burn before the first tear falls, then multiple falling after it. 

“You don’t get it. You don’t—it’s my soulmate. They—They can’t know, okay? I—I lost mom and dad, and you, once. That’s more than enough and I can’t lose them too, alright. I was passed from family to family, person to person, like an unwanted dog. Like a- Like a piece of trash. I already have to live with knowing that my soulmate— That my soulmate could leave me too.” Keith grits his teeth. His hands are fisted, nails biting into his palms, and the tears flow like all the emotions in him burst from the dam he’d put up.

“Keith…” Shiro places his hand on Keith’s arm and pulls him into a hug.

“ _They never stay_.”

* * *

Lance blinks at Allura, the problem with Lance finding Keith attractive, is that he wishes he didn’t.

Here is Allura, a freaking goddess standing in front of him, but he doesn't feel the usual butterflies-in-his-stomach attraction towards her. All he can feel is a friendship between them, a falsehood of attraction. But as friends, he knows he can still flirt with her and she won't take it seriously.

Where were those feelings for her? 

When did they stop? 

Why is every thought filled with only Keith?

Allura stares at him before taking a step towards him and pulling his hands into hers. She doesn't say anything, letting a long silence follow her movements.

As Lance is about to open his mouth, Allura speaks.

Her voice is tight and filled with so much more emotion than Lance has ever seen her show.

“Could you forgive me? For- For stopping you? For cutting you off, when you were only trying to help? It was unprofessional of me and I- I could never forgive myself for treating you so harshly. I had only meant to stay diplomatic and let him say his piece but in only shutting you down, I hurt your feelings.” Allura’s hands shake around Lance’s and he looks at her face.

How can such a beautiful person be filled with so much sorrow?

“Hey. Hey. Hey. Allura, calm down. I didn’t take it personally, I knew I shouldn’t have spo-” “No, Lance! Your feelings are important too and I need to put the team and each of you paladins feelings first before any of the alliances or planet complaints that are presented.”

Lance flinches at her words, moving his fingers around in her hand. Her eyes dart between his eyes and her chin quivers as she lets out shuddering breaths.

“I cannot put their feelings before yours and be okay with them speaking so negatively, when you weren’t in a place to help,” Allura smiles and grips his hands in hers, “you are important to the team and I need your help every step of the way. I will understand if you are upset with me and will only want to speak as a paladin and not a friend.”

Lance’s eyes widen, his throat feeling thick and his tongue heavy.

“Allura. How could you say that? You could never be just a leader to me.” Allura flinches and starts to take her hands away but Lance holds them tighter.“You are family. Allura.. Who else could say that they’re friends with an alien princess!? I have never ever thought of you any less than Coran could.”

“But- But I’ve been with Coran ever since I was a baby.”

“Then you know just how important you are to us.”

Allura pouts and shoves Lance’s shoulder. “I was supposed to be the one comforting you, stop it, you’re distracting me.”

Lance grins and snickers as she shoves him.

“But seriously, Allura, you are important to us.”

“Of course, how else would you save the universe without me.” She smiles and pats his hands. “You are important to all of us too, all of you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you and Blue. You’re our sharpshooter and you keep us together.”

Lance hums softly, looking down.

“Really Lance, you are important to us.”

“If you say so, Princess.”

“No, Lance. I need you to understand that you are valuable to the team. You are important for us to win this war. Not just because you’re a paladin, but you keep life enjoyable and keep the rest of us out of our heads. We need you, even if it’s us keeping you afloat. You are needed.”

“I- Yes, Princess.”

She smiles and shakes her head before jerking- something Lance would never have believed as something she would do- her head to Keith and Shiro who’d just walked through the door and heading towards the stars display.

“I think you should give Keith a hug too, to make him feel better, of course.” Her smile turns into a devious grin, a spark in her eyes.

Lance sputters and quickly stands up, tripping over his feet to get away. “Shiro seems to be doing a better job with, ya’ know, knowing him longer. So he’ll know better than I could how to, um, comfort him.” His voice is high and squeaky, only making Allura’s grin wider.

Lance glances around before landing on Pidge, who is carrying a smaller box to the back of the room.

“You know what! I think sh- _they_ wanted to tell us all something! Something _really really_ important.” Pidge looks up from the box she had set down and had started looking through, Hunk comes up behind her and starts looking though it instead.

“Lance, you better think about what you’re about to do real hard, because I’m five seconds away from shoving this-” She throws an object at them, only missing Lance’s head by inches, and starts picking up other non-destructible objects out of the box.

“NEVERMIND!” Lance screeches before bolting towards Shiro and Keith as a lead pipe is thrown at him. Another object hits Lance’s shoulder and he dives behind the pair. Shiro clutches Keith tighter into him and laughs as another object bullseyes the middle of Lance’s back.

Keith laughs wetly and tries to help Lance up, stopping when a metal piece flies his way.

“Don’t help him! He fuckin’ deserves this!” Pidge throws another item and Lance yelps behind a crate.

Shiro groans and glares at Pidge. “Language! Pidge, that’s another 10 GAC.”

“Ya’ know, Pidge, you could just use really weird phrases.” Lance yells behind a different crate.

“Oh yeah!? Like what?!” Pidge yells back.

“If I tell you, will you stop throwing things at me?”Lance pokes his head out from his hiding spot and finds Pidge standing above him. He screams and scrambles back away from her.

“No.”

Lance looks to the others and finds none of them offering any help, groaning he looks back to Pidge. “Fine. Go ahead and pelt me with the stuff you got.”

“Or you could just say sorry.”

“Fine, fine, fine. _I’m sorry, Pidge_. Happy?” Lance rolls away from her and gets up. He rubs the places that hurt the most, mainly being the back of his head and the back of his shoulder.

Lance squawks as Pidge nudges his arm enough for it to give out and has him faceplant into the floor.

Pidge grumbles and walks back to Hunk, taking out a few things and hooking them together before handing them to Hunk without a word.

Keith comes over and offers a hand to Lance, who takes it willingly.

“Thanks.” Lance mumbles as he feels the heat rushing to his face.

Keith laughs and grips Lance’s hand in his.

Allura walks to the controls and turns to the rest of them. “Alright paladins, I believe we have contact with another quadrant in need of Voltron. Prepare for travel.”

They all nod and sit in their seats, watching Coran step up to the front.

Allura places her hands on the controls and the Castle hums with energy.

* * *

Allura tells all of them to go rest as they travel and they all can’t help but agree as the tiredness sets in after the fight.

“Hey, Lance. Wanna do facemasks with Pidge and I?” Hunk taps Lance’s shoulder and glances over to Pidge, who hangs by the Bridge door waiting for them.

“Oh. Yeah! Definitely!” Lance grabs Hunk’s hand that had tapped his shoulder and runs towards Pidge, grabbing her hand too, and runs to the common room.

Hunk chuckles while Pidge groans as he pulls them along but once they’re in the room, Lance quickly lets them go and goes to the side wall getting some of the things they need out.

Hunk touches his frantic hands and Lance looks up at him confused. “Let us set the stuff up, go ahead and wash your face.”

Lance frowns but nods his head slowly, standing up and walking to a side bathroom that’s across the hall, sneaking a glance behind his shoulder at the pair.

Pidge sniffs and moves a box closer to her, before pulling out a mixture that Lance usually uses. She brings her sleeve up to her eyes and sniffs again as a heavy breath leaves her.

Hunk looks up from the bowl of alien treats he had been mixing, he pulls up a seat next to him and Pidge goes to it willingly. Her eyes are filled with tears and she wipes at her nose, sniffing.

Lance quickly leaves the room and washes his face. Not as deep and clean as he would usually do, but it’s enough that his face isn’t going to have any acne tomorrow. As he’s drying his face, footsteps quietly pass the bathroom, towards the training deck.

“Keith?” Lance peeks his head outside the door and finds Keith frozen midstep.

“Lance?” Keith turns around, his face blank but his eyebrows are shot up in surprise.

“Hey. What are you doing?”

Keith frowns and looks down the hallway before looking back at Lance. “I’m going to go train?”

“Oh.” Lance stares at him, his hands fumbling with the towel in his hands. “Do you want to hangout with Hunk, Pidge, and I?”

It’s quiet for a few minutes and Lance feels an embarrassed flush creeping onto his face. He drops his head and stares at his hands, mortification running through his head.

_Of course he doesn’t want to. Who am I kidding, he has better things to do than waste his time doing facemasks._

“Nevermind, that was stupid of me to-” “Sure.” Keith cuts him off.

Lance whips his head up from looking at his hands and finds a small smile to Keith’s face.

“I’m just going to go change, but I’ll come in a bit later?” Lance immediately nods his head and smiles.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Of course! Go ahead, we’ll just be in the common room…” He smiles and nods his head before going to his room.

Lance stares at him as he leaves and turns towards the common room, stumbling into the room.

“Hey, Lance. We’re just getting started. I’m gonna start a movie, so while I’m getting that ready, do you want-” “I asked Keith to join us.”

Hunk’s eyes widen and Pidge laughs. “Oh my god. Fucking finally.”

“ _Pidge_.” Hunk frowns and pinches her arm.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lance walks up to them on the couch, leaning over Pidge.

“You two are like middle school relationships. You two circle around each other but never do anything except blush and sometimes hold hands.”

Hunk laughs and nods his head.

“What? No we aren’t.”

“Lance, you two literally spent like, three hours in Blue, just holding each other.”

“So did you and Hunk!”

“Not for two three.” Pidge nudges his shoulder and he almost topples over.

“Whatever. It’s not like it means anything to him. He probably just felt bad for me.” Lance frowns and drops onto the couch next to them, sliding down into himself. Pidge glares at him and gets up from the couch, elbowing her way out of the beanbag-like couch.

Hunk places a hand on Lance but 

Pidge sniffs dramatically and rubs her nose harshly before letting out a loud sneeze. She rubs her nose again and glares at Lance. “Oh my god. Sorry, I must be allergic to all the bullshit you just said.” She grabs the collar of his shirt and yanks him towards her.

“I don’t ever want to hear any of those self-deprecating words from your mouth again. You are worthy of love and happiness just as all the rest of us deserve it. If you aren’t, then I guess I’m dying all fucking alone. Keith is in love with you and you are so in love with him, so don’t you dare tell me that he isn’t.” Pidge shoves him back into the couch and flops onto it, her head landing in Hunk’s lap.

Lance stares at her, mouth agape, while Hunk laughs and knocks the back of Lance’s head.

“Yeah, Lance. I mean, have you seen the way he looks at you when you barely even open your mouth? Man. I feel like I’m always walking in at the wrong moment or I’m listening to something that I’m not supposed to hear whenever you two talk to each other.”

Pidge groans and pinches Lance’s arm. “Oh my- I swear, you two always look like you’re going to kiss, BUT YOU NEVER DO!” She screeches the last past and Hunk busts up laughing.

His laughter is contagious and before you know it, they’re all laughing.

Keith walks in at that moment, confusion written all over his face but a small smile starting to form, pointing at the door. “Am I interrupting something? Should I wait outside?”

Lance shoots up from the couch, only making Pidge and Hunk laugh harder, and walks up to Keith trying to stop his laughter.

“Ah, no. Don’t worry, you came in at the right moment.” Any second earlier and Lance probably would have freaked out. He guides Keith to the couch and brings the large bowl of treats with them as they sit down.

Pidge and Hunk have hands over their mouths, trying to calm down. Lance rolls his eyes and grabs the remote from Hunk’s side and presses play.

Keith sits next to him on the couch and Lance can’t help but feel a giddiness everytime they so much as brush each other’s hands. Or even the blush that starts to form when their knees are pressed together as they try to fit everyone on the couch.

Lance leans back and his shoulder brushes Keith’s, making it so they’re pressed to each other’s sides. Keith shifts a little and his hand brushes Lance’s, both of them blush but force their eyes to the movie.

The movie is pretty decent, it was Hunk’s turn to choose, so he obviously chose a horror murder mystery. No matter how many they had watched at the Garrison, Lance is still fucking terrified of horror movies. Hunk and Lance had watched one their first week together and Lance had never been able to sleep in his own bed after watching it since. Hunk had this weird fascination with how they filmed the movies and would always comment how they did certain things or the different props they used. It didn’t matter though because Lance would usually cut him off with a scream when something happened.

“Nooo. Hunk! You said we wouldn’t watch anymore horror! You promised!” Lance slumps into the couch but quickly brings his hands up to his eyes when a door slams in the movie.

“Oh, be quiet Lance. Coran said it wasn’t even scary, so calm down.” Pidge nudges him and Lance in turn scoots closer to Keith, who lifts his arm for more space.

Hunk catches Lance’s eye and wiggles his eyebrows and Lance groans.

Keith laughs and wraps his arm around Lance’s shoulders. Lance immediately goes blank, his mind in shambles.

A scream on the screen brings him back so fast that he screams himself and hides his eyes.

“Why can’t we just do facemasks now?!” Lance scrambles off the couch and goes to the packs of food goo face masks he had made a couple weeks before.

The rest of them laugh and pause the movie, joining him at the table.

Keith sits next to Lance, looking confused with everything that’s on the table.

They quickly show him how to use everything and Lance helps him smear it on his face before doing his own.

  
  
  
  


**_ We're soulmates._**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was actually kinda hard to write because of all the deaths I tried to do, and also the different ways that the village could have responded to the help given that only Hunk and Shiro were able to help at the beginning. I dunno, I feel like there could've been something more to the start but it kinda felt like I was leading too much and kept having it go on and on. I actually wrote the scene like four times, cause I was trying to find which one was most fitting... Anyways hope you liked this chapter.
> 
> Don't just read and run! Reading comments is always the best part of my day!!!


	15. Run Until It's All You Can Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Keith, it’s called Crisis Management 101.” Lance rolls his eyes and takes the med kit out of Keith’s hands.  
> “What are you talking about? Should I just start yelling before I come into a room? Is that what you want?”  
> “Uh. No. I think that’d only scare me more. Ya’ know, that kinda has the “Here’s Johnny” feel to it.”
> 
> * * *
> 
> The Blades are an escape, and family is found. Keith finds out Galra are more peaceful than what he's led to believe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY! PLEASE READ- I wrote a whole chapter doing the whole Keith is a leader and Shiro is gone but I eventually just threw the whole thing way... which was probably the worst freaking idea I've ever had. But I didn't like how it was written and I felt like I was taking too much time and had a major burn out which sucked. ANYWAYS! This chapter is from the point of them finding the Blade base. yeah. HUGE skip, but I gotta.
> 
> Also! TW: Mentions about thoughts of suicide, abuse, and a LOT of swearing.
> 
> **ALSO I CHANGED THE WORDS OF THE FANCY FUTURE CONVERSATION FROM CHAPTER 8 TO CHAPTER 14!!! PLEASE GO READ THEM!!! IT IS SOOO IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO OR YOU WILL BE CONFUSED!!!! I HAD TO CHANGE THE CONVERSATION! ******

“You promised guys,” Pidge grumbles as she slides out from underneath Green’s metal paw.

“And I did most of it,” Lance brags, puffing out his chest, gesturing to the massive pile of metal and wires. A swell of pride runs through him when he looks back at the pile. “See!”

Hunk groans and slumps into one of the gaps of Green’s paws. Lance laughs and nudges Hunk with his toe.

“I am not searching through that planet again for any more metal. You will have to drag my dead corpse, that’s right, my dead corpse before you can make me take a step on it again.” Hunk rubs his face with his hands.

Lance laughs harder and turns back to Pidge, “And you call me dramatic?”

Pidge rolls her eyes and barely places a finger to a metal piece; it immediately crumbles into a powder.“They’re all _rusted_ and some of them are... bent? How do you expect me to use them!?” She steps around the pile and moves a few pieces around before groaning and turning towards the pair.

“You asked for metal, we got you metal. There wasn’t any contact piece of metal there. Sure, there were ships and boats, but that’s where we got most of these big pieces.” Lance taps his hand against one of the larger pieces. “Plus, can’t you just use that cleaner spray that Coran uses?” Lance doesn’t mention the machine she kept in her room. It’s probably buried under all the other projects she started and didn’t finish. A chill goes up his spine; Walls lined with random trinkets with odds and ends everywhere.

Pidge glares at him and knocks on one of the pieces, “The spray would clean it from the rust but it wouldn’t fix the problem of _it falling apart!_ Guys, I need this metal usable to help beef-up the Blades’ ships. Kolivan won’t let me even take a step towards their ships but I _need_ to. _I will literally die_ if I can’t find out how they made their spiral compact engines.”

But Pidge is right. She did ask for good and usable metal and Lance didn’t really want the Blade to be ma at him, but Pidge is terrifying.

The metal sheets Lance had found? Barely useful, but it was convenient and they could fix it up. The time to bring them to the hangers and with how big they were, Lance couldn’t help but feel tired out but complacent.

“I mean you can use them, but… ummmm” -shoot, how can you make anything practical with the metal, when it’s five seconds away from crumbling beneath their eyes?- “I’ll clean them.” Lance surrenders finally.

Pidge nods her head, “You can ask Coran if you can use his machine in the and slides back under without another word.

Lance emits a long-suffering sigh and picks up the chords that he’d connected to the hovering sled-like table.

Lance passes Keith in the hallway- who pauses and stares- but Lance is completely oblivious to the indigo eyes.

\---Keith and Shiro had gone to the Blades base and had come back, a little bruised and battered but otherwise completely fine.

When they had found out Keith was Galran, it was quiet for a bit until Coran broke the silence exclaiming that it wasn’t really a surprise. Keith had broken down into tears and they all hugged it out and everything was fine and dandy.

Allura had taken it kinda hard but still treated Keith like family. Even though Zarkon had killed her father and was at one point family to Allura. She only claimed that if Keith betrayed any of them in any way that she would personally kill him.

That made an awkward silence for the rest of the day.

But Kolivan interrupted it by pulling Keith over and asking him to join them, which Lance had almost vehemently disagreed with if it weren’t for the fact that Keith’s mom could be alive _and Galran_.---

Keith’s eyes grow wide at the pile of metal Lance accumulated on his search for Pidge, or it could’ve been at his outfit which is also a bit absurd.

He’s not wearing his usual blue baseball t-shirt and blue jeans, instead he’s wearing some type of Altean overalls that are cinched at the waist and the pant legs are rolled up. There’s mud and dirt all over the cuffs and small tears around the chest area and partly down one of the pant legs.

Lance mumbles something under his breath as he walks along and Keith strains to hear it. Lance turns the corner 

“Lance?” Keith goes to follow but smacks into Shiro right as he turns the corner. He tries peering over Shiro’s shoulder to follow where Lance is headed but the older brother moves too.

“Shiro, knock it off.”

“Keith?” Shiro grabs his arms and all but pouts.

“Oh don’t act all innocent. I want to talk to Lance.” Keith tries pushing Shiro so he can squeeze-by but Shiro once again becomes a fucking door.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, all I want is a simple conversation with my younger brother.”

Keith scoffs and tries prying Shiro’s hands off his arm.

“I just want to talk to him!” Keith all but yells.

Shiro hoists him over his shoulder and starts to walk the other way.

“No! Shiro! Go back!” Keith tries swinging his foot but Shiro catches it before it can cause any, ya’know, _damage_.

Shiro, used to Keith’s antics, leans Keith’s legs up. Which causes Keith to struggle more and worry about falling face first.

“Let me go! I’m not going to hurt him in any way!” Keith shouts and holds onto Shiro’s waist.

Shiro pauses and turns his head to look briefly down at the younger brother.

“You’re really not going to beat him up?” Shiro groans and takes a few more steps down the hallway.

“Oh my- _no_ , I’m not going to beat him up. God.” Keith stares down the hallway, willing Lance to come back around the corner.

“Are you sure? Because your face says otherwise.”

“Fuck you. My face looks like this because I’m five seconds from throwing all of your eye liners out of the airlock.”

Shiro chuckles and leans Keith’s legs up higher. “You wouldn’t.”

His voice is dark, and god does it send chills down Keith’s spine.

Or it could be the rest of his blood rushing to his face.

Either way, Keith struggles a bit more before slumping and trying to make his weight heavier.

“Give up?” Shiro laughs and pats Keith’s leg.

“Shiro, if you don’t let me go- it’s all gone. All of it.”

Shiro sighs and brings Keith’s legs back down. “Why are you acting like this? Usually you and Lance avoid each other like the plague.”

“I-I think he might be my soulmate. I just- I want to know. You said he wouldn’t reject me, right? I think I might be able to trust him…” Keith’s voice starts out strong but in the end he only mumbles his answer.

Before Keith knows it, his feet hit the ground and sways slightly.

Shiro holds Keith’s arms, keeping him up and to look him in the eyes.

“Are you going to ask him?”

“No, well- at least not yet. I just want to talk to him- to know him before we’re actually soulmates.”

“Awe, does someone have a little crush?” Shiro teases, laughing when Keith struggles anew.

“STOP! NO! Let go of me, you damn brick wall.”

“Wow, that’s the best insult you can think of?”

“Oh my- Please, I just want to talk to him.”

Shiro sighs and pulls Keith into his embrace and just hugs him. “I’m proud of you for trying.” His voice is quiet but doesn’t change the effect the words have on Keith.

“Oh for god's sake! Don’t get all mushy on me!”

Then after a beat of silence, “Thanks, Shiro.”

Shiro steps away and pats Keith’s shoulder.

_What is it with people and patting backs? Is it supposed to be motivating?_

“Okay, as long as you don’t cause any harm, and I mean any harm at all, then I guess you’re good.”

“Wow, good to know that I need your permission to talk to people.”

“Ah ah ah. Not people, Lance specifically.”

“It’s almost like Lance is your brother and not me.”

“Sometimes I wish you were as open as he is, but I like you just fine.”

“Huh, it’s like I’m a used car to you.”

“ _Well…_ ”

“Don’t, just stop.”

Shiro laughs then waves Keith down the hallway.

Keith quickly runs around the corner and tries finding Lance, but he’s already long gone.

_Shoot._

Keith continues to run down the hallway, stopping only to look into rooms that he eventually finds empty.

“Ugh, now I’m never going to find him. Maybe he’s with Coran?” Keith mumbles as he walks down the hall. 

_Wait_.

Keith stops and looks around the hallway before he tries the trick he’d learned back on the forest-kidnapping planet.

Keith sniffs and tries blinking as if Lance’s footprints would suddenly appear like they had in the forest.

Keith groans as he keeps walking through the halls, peering into rooms he passes by.

At first the rooms are empty but Keith looks into one of the rooms and finds Coran balancing random objects and trying to reach a vase on a table.

“Coran?” Keith takes a step into the room, the sliding door groaning as it opens.

“Oh! My boy, can you place that vase in my hand? I’m trying this yogie thing Pidge had mentioned, she said it calmed the mind.”

Keith hands Coran the vase and steps away before he can accidentally knock something off of Coran.

“I think you mean yoga, but what’s with the stuff?” Keith watches Coran bend at the waist and stretch his arms out, none of the objects falling.

“I want to mix Altean balancing with your Earthen yoga, we use objects to help us balance and to be counterweights.”

“Oh. Does it help?”

“I would like to think so, if not then I am afraid I broke a glass Pendirigon statue for nothing.” Coran winces and gestures to the closest corner of the room, swept neatly in a pile is pieces of either intact limbs or shards of glass from what must be the broken statue.

“Do you want me to throw it away for you?”

“Oh no, no, no. I will take care of it once I’m done, just in case I drop another statue or vase.”

“Okay. Oh! I’m trying to find Lance, have you seen him pass by?”

“You aren’t going to fight him, are you? Cause if you are then no, I haven’t.” Coran slowly turns away, wobbling on one foot.

“No! I just want to talk to him about something he said, um, back on the planet.” Keith groans and runs a hand through the front of his hair.

Coran turns back around, the vase on his shoulder tipping and almost falling if it weren’t for Keith being able to catch it.

Coran smiles and gestures for Keith to place it on his head instead, Keith hesitantly tries balancing it on the top of the styled orange hair. Coran shifts and the vase balances almost perfectly, it is slightly tipped but otherwise stays on top.

“Alrighty then! He asked me to help him clean some metal for Pidge.”

“Okay, so? Where’s that?” Keith rubs his forehead and tries to quell the anger that is slowly rising the more Coran keeps him standing there.

“It’s probably the largest room we have, I’m actually quite proud of the design of it-”

“Coran, the room. Where is it?”

“It’s next to the library. Pidge usually goes in there after Allura’s lessons.”

“Lessons?”

“Altean lessons. She’s helping Pidge and the other two younger paladins learn the many different languages. Lance doesn’t like the lessons so Pidge and Allura are making a fighting simulator to help him learn. Hunk is learning with food and the mice, and he’s doing quite well for his age. I’d say he’s farther than both Pidge and Lance combined!” Coran smiles and nudges Keith with a clay pot in hand and motions towards the door.

“Allura is teaching them?” Keith shuffles towards the door, avoiding the stretched out limbs and other pots and different glass and metal objects strewn across the floor.

He almost trips over a splayed wood statue in a… compromising pose…

Ew.

“Yes! I’m sure if you ask, Allura would help you learn too.”

“Oh. Okay, um, sure. Thanks for the tip.”

“Of course! Now leave so I can finish my yogie.” Coran tries flapping his hand but almost drops the clay pot that’s barely balancing on his heel.

There’s a crash of metal somewhere further down the hallway and Keith accidentally hits his head against the room’s doorway that he had just looked through. Keith winces and starts rubbing the sore spot.

When Keith’s eyes open little blue specks float from the floor.

“Woah.” Keith stumbles as he follows the speckling blue path on the floor.

* * *

A large piece of metal that Lance starts pulling out of the pile crash-lands next to him on the floor, causing Lance to jump and bump into the rest of the metal causing a loud crash to ring throughout the room. “Shit!”

Lance groans as he bends down with his already sore legs and picks up the sheets of rusted metal.

The first piece that had fallen crumbles at the edges and Lance tries to carefully pick it up, unsuccessfully getting his palms nicked with the sharp edges.

“Oh man...” Lance finishes up picking the last bits of metal up and turns around for the med kit by the door just as it slides open.

Lance screams and tries to cut himself off, only embarrassing himself more with the strangled noise he makes, when he realizes that it’s just Keith.

“ _Dios_! Learn how to knock, you jerk!”

“Why should I knock when the door is already going to automatically open by itself?” Keith questions and looks Lance up and down before picking up the fallen med kit.

“Keith, it’s called Crisis Management 101.” Lance rolls his eyes and takes the med kit out of Keith’s hands.

“What are you talking about? Should I just start yelling before I come into a room? Is that what you want?”

“Uh. No. I think that’d only scare me more. Ya’ know, that kinda has the _“Here’s Johnny”_ feel to it.”

“The what?” Keith looks perplexed as if the whole conversation is in another language. “Is that from an Altean movie? I didn’t think that Alteans made horror movies.”

“Wait, what?! You’ve never seen The Shining? It’s an Earth movie! Did you never see horror movies as a kid?” Lance’s voice raises three octaves, maybe four, sounding exactly like a teapot steaming.

“No. Not really.” Keith says softly, looking away. His hands wring together in front of him before wiping them against the sides of his legs then using one of them to point at the pile of metal. “Anyways, what’s that for?”

Lance hesitates but decides against calling Keith out. “That’s the metal Pidge had asked for from Allura, but Allura was too busy so I volunteered.” Lance opens the med kit, sifting through it. “Well, more like Pidge begged me to, Hunk just tagged along.”

“Then what’s with the med kit?” Keith nods his head towards the kit in Lance’s hands.

“I cut my hand a bit on the sharp parts.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. I’m probably going to die of tetanus.” Lance pulls out a fizzing bottle full of blue liquid and a few cotton balls.

“I don’t think you can die from tetanus, and plus didn’t you get a tetanus shot when you were younger?” Keith takes them from his hands and vaguely gestures to the chair with his head.

“Well, I mean, yeah.” Lance sits down and holds his hands up to Keith, palms up. “But you can still get tetanus afterwards, I haven’t gotten my booster shot yet.”

“Isn’t that every ten years though?” Keith pours the liquid onto one of the cotton balls and starts dabbing it to Lance’s hand.

“Yeah, I’m almost nineteen. I could die from tetanus and you.” 

“What the- Lance! You aren’t going to die.” Keith frowns but keeps cleaning the small drops of blood.

“Yes I can! I could die from muscle spasms! Lack of oxygen is a thing Keith!” Lance hisses in pain when Keith presses the cotton ball too harshly.

“...Man, you are so fucking dramatic.”

“Are you admitting that I’m right?” Lance leans forward, getting more into Keith’s space.

“...” Keith stares down at Lance’s hands, not answering, but continues to clean the little nicks of blood.

“Keith.” Lance, one to not know of a personal bubble, scooted closer and got up into his face.

Keith nudges his head and continues to dab at the small cuts.

“ _Keith._ Come on!” Lance presses back in and blows into Keith’s face.

“God! Okay, fine!” Keith looks up from Lance’s hands, realizing how close they had gotten.

Lance stares at him. Keith can’t quite tell what he’s thinking, trying hard as not to let the smile grow on his face. Lance laughs and knocks into Keith’s side, almost making Keith drop the cotton ball.

Keith stares at Lance as he laughs.

It’s so open and happy, it isn’t like his obnoxiously loud and attention grabbing laugh, it’s soft and quieter. 

Keith forgets his fight with his face and smiles.

Then it’s Lance’s turn to stare at him like he’s something else.

Keith fidgets and turns back to Lance’s hands. “Um. So, what are you going to do with the metal now?” Keith asks, reaching into the medkit and pulling a small container of yellowish-green paste out. The paste is more of a precaution than anything, to keep the wound from getting infected and to scab faster.

“Well I have to set the weird light thing to scan the metal, but other than that I’ll just leave it for Coran to finish. I don’t really want to mess around with stuff and accidentally blow something up.” Lance laughs and twitches when Keith tightens his hold around his hand.

“I don’t think that could happen.”

“You said the same thing about tetanus though.”

“...Fuck you. I don’t see you dying, do I?” Keith resists the urge to roll his eyes, but the urge is barely hanging by a thread. He finishes up Lance’s left hand and starts on the other.

Lance laughs and nudges Keith’s shoulder with his own. “Nah, I don’t think people would want to live if my perfect face wasn’t in the world- I mean universe.”

And to that, the thread snaps and Keith rolls his eyes, shaking his head as he lets out a quiet laugh.

It goes quiet and Keith looks up to Lance’s face, his eyes are wide and his mouth is slightly dropped as if he’s in the process of becoming a cartoon character in shock.

Lance stares at him and Keith looks back to the hands in his grasp.

“Anyways, how was the planet?” Keith places the last wrap around Lance’s hand and presses the velcro-like clasp together.

Lance takes his hand back and flexes it a few times before answering, “It was okay, the natives weren’t very talkative. I could barely get a few words out of them but they seemed to like Hunk. I think they’d really like you, cause you’re so quiet.”

Keith nods his head, pausing at the end, then frowns, “Wait, what does that mean?”

Lance scrambles to catch Keith’s hand and pulls it towards himself. “I didn’t mean it that way! Honestly! I just mean that they would probably be more comfortable with the silence then be forced to talk, like with me.”

“Oh.” Keith nods his head, understanding, the frown slowly slipping off his face. “Sorry.”

Lance laughs, trying to replace the awkwardness that had started to grow in the room. “No, I should be the one saying sorry. I should have worded that better.”

Keith sighs. “You didn’t mean anything by it.” He hesitates for a second before continuing, “Do you really think they’d like me?”

Lance tilts his head, and his eyes flick back and forth between Keith’s eyes.

Keith’s shoulders are almost pressing up to his ears and he isn’t looking Lance in the eye.

He looks timid, Lance realizes and almost laughs if it weren’t the frown that appears on Keith’s face.

“Never mind. It was stupid to ask.” Keith pulls his hands out of Lance’s grasp and turns to walk away.

Lance quickly grabs his arm and shakes Keith’s shoulder with his other hand.

“Are you crazy!? Of course they would! I think they’d enjoy your presence, you’d might even get them to talk. Maybe Allura might ask you to help with negotiations, why wouldn’t they like you?” Lance smiles and shakes Keith’s shoulder before taking Keith’s hand.

“I-I don’t know.” Keith blinks and Lance is closer.

Somehow they had scooted enough that Lance was pressed up to his side, leaning against him.

“Lance, is it you?” Keith leans a bit closer, searching Lance’s face for any evidence.

“What’s wr-What do you mean?”

“I think you’re my soulmate.”

“I- I don’t know what to say to that.”

“Can- I have a pen.”

Lance laughs and brings his head to meet Keith’s.

Keith pulls out the red pen from his back pocket and places the tip to his arm. He’s staring so intently at his own that he doesn’t notice Lance’s gasp.

“Oh my- Keith! We’re- Oh my god!” Lance’s eyes are unbelievably wide and open.

Keith smiles and laughs looking down at Lance’s arm. “We’re soulmates.”

The relief is unbearable and they press closer to each other.

So undeniably happy and for a second everything freezes. 

Their faces are pretty close.

It’s funny, really, it’s almost as if the space between them wasn’t there.

And well, it slowly wasn’t.

“ _Keith_.”

A million thoughts go through Keith’s mind, they suddenly stop when Lance brings a bandaged hand to Keith’s cheek.

Keith’s heart is like a rabbit racing through his chest. He wonders if Lance can hear it, he wonders if Lance’s is the same.

Keith can see the different specks of blue in Lance’s eyes as they get closer, and- and they’re beautiful, so enchanting.

It was like the sky on a sunny day, or a swimming pool full of glistening water.

Or the ocean, Keith almost wishes they had an ocean near so he could make a comparison.

So rich and colorful.

So _blue._

They’re so close that Keith can see the faint freckles dusting the other’s cheeks and nose.

 _I’ve never noticed them before._ Keith thinks openly, as if he’s trying to send them to Lance.

His eyes drift down Lance’s face and-

His lips look so soft and-

And oh-

_Oh._

Their faces inching closer and for a second, Lance almost makes the space gone completely, if it weren’t for the hand that presses against his chest.

It stops him there, almost centimetres from Keith’s lips.

An ivory hand placed against his chest, so lightly but firm, while another hand sneaks it’s way between their lips and the sad face, that once was a small smile but god was it a smile, in front of him pulls away.

“I can’t.”

And then he’s gone.

* * *

Lance stands there in shock before realizing Keith left.

And so he runs.

Lance tries looking everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

Under and on top of Black, everywhere in Black’s hangar. Nothing.

He checks Keith’s room and everywhere in between there and the common room. Nothing

The training room? Nothing.

The dining room? Nope.

The kitchen? Nada.

The main core of the castle? Not even a hair.

Lance asks everyone, even the Blades!

Well except for Kolivan, that dude is pretty scary.

Who was also the only one to know where Keith was in the end but it was already too late before Lance got enough courage to ask him.

“Keith is leaving with the Blade.” Allura announces that night.

Every bit of blood in Lance’s body decides to disappear, his legs feel weak and his head dizzy.

“What? Why?” Pidge asks outraged.

It’s good she did because Lance couldn’t even feel his face, not alone his tongue.

“He believes it’ll help the team, Shiro is back and there are one too many paladins and one too few lions. It’s simply for the best.” Allura actually looks to be on the verge of tears. Shiro looks as if he’s already heard the news but is still hurt and trying to understand it.

“Then- If he believes that then why isn’t he telling us himself?” Hunk sniffs and wipes an arm across his eyes.

“I am.” Keith’s voice rings out from the back of the room.

Everyone whips around to look at him. He quietly walks to them and not so subtly looks at Lance before glancing away to the others.

“Kolivan thinks it would be helpful to learn about my Galran side and- and he knows where my mother is.”

Lance’s breath catches in his throat and his chest feels so raw and ripped open.

“If you really think that’s the best thing you can choose, then go. I’m not watching you leave though.” Lance finally speaks but his heart breaks every word that reveals itself.

He quickly stands up and leaves before anyone can say another word. Keith reaches out but Lance ignores the hand and walks the last few steps out the door.

He listens to it slide shut, and then the tears fall.

* * *

Keith stares at the door, his chest feeling so fucking heavy. He tries to go for the door but a hand grabs his arm, he turns finding Shiro connected to the hand.

“Don’t Keith, he needs time.”

“I can’t, Shiro! I’m leaving tonight and I have to say goodbye to him! I-He’ll never forgive me if I don’t.” Keith rips his arm out of Shiro’s grasp and continues for the door.

“Keith, think about how he feels. He’s your right hand man and you’re deciding to step away from being the leader.” Allura’s voice tears down the wall Keith had placed up before coming in.

“I-I know. But-If I don’t step down- If I don’t leave then Lance won’t feel like he’s part of the team. And this way he’ll have to stay. He’ll have a place in Voltron and he’ll be needed.” Keith doesn’t realize he’s crying until he sniffs and brings a hand up to his face, finding his eyes and cheeks wet.

“I’m not a good enough soulmate for him but I can be a better teammate and leave before he thinks he has to.” Keith chokes on the air that is trying to fill his lungs causing him to hiccup.

Hunk is crying in his seat and Pidge is trying to wrap her arms tighter around herself almost like she’s trying to keep from falling apart.

Keith quickly rushes towards the door and straight to Lance’s room.

Once he reaches the door he raps on the door as loudly as he can. “Lance! I need to talk to you!”

There isn’t an answer from the other side and Keith opens the door to find a bundle under the blanket on Lance’s bed.

“Lance, please.” Keith pleads and takes a step closer towards the bed.

The blankets shift closer towards the wall and further away from Keith.

“Um, okay. If you don’t want to- Never mind. I don’t want you to think because of earlier. I-I’m not the soulmate you want. I’m not the person you want me to be.”

Lance shoots out of his blankets and grabs Keith by the collar.

“I never wanted or expected anything from you! I just wanted to know if you were alive or not! There were so many times where I cried because you wouldn’t answer or I couldn’t feel our bond!” Lance’s eyes are dripping crocodile tears with every sentence he speaks. “I didn’t care who you were. I don’t care now! I only care about you and how you’re doing because you matter so much to me. I waited for so long and I’m not giving up now just because you’re leaving.”

Keith stares at the Cuban boy in front of him. His eyes are a dark and stormy blue and even though his face is stained with tears, he’s beautiful.

“I lost my dad when I was eight, to-um, smoke in his lungs. My aunt blamed me for his death and she put me in the system. I was in a lot of homes before one kept me for almost a full year then my foster dad went bat shit crazy and tried killing my foster mom. I think she was the only one I thought I could trust but then she suddenly decides that I’m too dangerous and- and if it weren’t for Shiro I would’ve been put back in the system.” Keith feels the weight in his chest get lighter the more he speaks and the lighter he feels the more tears come. “Then he went on the Kerberos mission and I thought my world was over when they told me he was dead. I- You- But you were my only light in the dark, I never answered because- because I thought I could finally let go once you stopped answering.”

Lance stares at the smaller boy, his raven hair is tangled and sticking up in some places as if he had been gripping his hair.

“I just wanted it all to end. I was so tired of being alone, but you kept writing and keeping your side of the bond open. Sometimes, it was annoying.”

Lance laughs and wipes at his eyes.

“That’s why I’m leaving.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“No! No, no. I don’t mean I’m leaving because of you. I’m leaving because I need to learn how to keep my side open. To- To rely on you when you’re not next to me.”

Lance slowly nods his head, not quite understanding but still trying to be supportive.

“And hey, I’ll always try to be there if Voltron needs me.” Lance nods his head and before he can say anything else there’s a knock on the door.

“Keith, it’s time to leave.” Kolivan’s voice is quiet behind the sliding door.

Lance lets go of Keith’s shirt and steps away.

“You’ll write though?”

Keith smiles, “As much as I can.”

* * *

True to Keith's word, Shiro isn't able to find any of his eye liner...

* * *

The Blade of Mamora is a lot quieter than on the Castle, like 75% quieter. The only loud areas- or well, where it’s socially okay to be loud- is the cafeteria and the training rooms.

Keith found that out after his third day there.

On his eighth day, Keith misses the rambling from Pidge- the only ones who mostly understood being Hunk and Coran-

And at night, Hunk’s humming while he baked. 

It’s been almost a month and he misses Lanc-

Keith quickly shakes his head and focuses on Kolivan’s back as they walk down the magenta lit hallways.

This’ll be the thirtieth mission since he left the castle, the third mission since he tried crashing his ship at Naxzela… 

The team still doesn’t know. At least, they haven’t said anything yet.

Keith doesn't think Matt has let it slip or Kolivan either.

Anyways, this one seems to be really important because Voltron is asking for the Blades help.

**So what’s this mission?**

Lance’s answer is immediate.

**_Oh, hey Samurai!_ **

**Hi. The mission?**

**_Oh can we not only talk about missions_ **

Keith laughs and presses the pen back to his arm.

**I mean we can, but I want to hear it from you first.**

**_Fuck you_ **

**Wow, loving words.**

**_Keiiiith_ **

**Okay, fine. How’s Voltron?**

**_OH MY GOD_ **

**Hey, you said something other than the mission.**

Keith feels a burst of annoyance go through the bond and he laughs again.

**_Huh, thanks Keith for asking about my day. Cause ya’ know it’s going pretty great_ **

Keith laughs harder until he’s clutching his stomach and trying to catch his breath.

**Oh that’s interesting.**

**_YOU CAN ASK WHAT I DID_ **

**Nah, sorry, Kolivan wants me to pay attention to this meeting.**

**_IT DOESN’T START FOR ANOTHER FIVE MINUTES_ **

**Oh, good. I didn’t know how much time was left. Thanks.**

**_I hate you_ **

**Awe, that’s cute.**

**_WAIT WHAT?!_ **

Kolivan places his hand on Keith’s shoulder and gestures to a seat that’s beside his, facing the screen in front of them.

Keith can feel the bond still open and buzzing his skin the longer he doesn’t look down at his arm.

He does write to Lance, but sometimes he’s on a mission and can only answer after he’s done and tired. Keith does feel bad for some of his half hearted answers but Lance continues on like nothing.

They talk about everything, or at least the things Lance is willing to tell him.

Keith finds out the Hunk and Shay are soulmates and Hunk is constantly writing to her in his yellow pen. Keith was confused at first why Hunk used a yellow pen, feeling dumb when he realized they all basically used their lion colors.

Team Voltron appears on the screen with Allura in the middle and Coran on her left and Shiro on her right. Pidge and Hunk sit next to Shiro while Lance sits next to Coran.

Lance is gesturing to his arm and Coran laughs at it. Pidge and Hunk have a metal contraption in their hands, placing and connecting wires to it and pressing buttons. The only ones focusing on the screen in front of them are Allura and Shiro.

Allura clears her throat and everyone turns towards the screen, all looking excited and quickly scrambling to their seats. There are quiet whispers of Keith’s name and he can feel a small smile growing on his face.

“Hello, thank you for having this meeting with us. How are things for the Blades doing so far?” Allura has her diplomatic face up and is completely serious.

The others on the other hand look like they’re about to jump out of their seats any second.

“We’ve infiltrated another prison ship and found more records about the prisoners from other districts, like your green paladin has asked from us. We found information about a weapon that Haggar has been working on, this weapon seems to be the one on the planet, currently. The rebels are coming from the Abrailian Quadrant, they should arrive in about two quintants.” Kolivan’s low voice radiates through the room and another screen pops up off to the side.

Speaking about the devil, Matt and some other rebels standing off to the side come on screen.

“Oh! Finally! Sorry, Beezer accidentally hit the comm antenna and we couldn’t find the right signal.” Matt quickly shoves said robot off screen.

“Other information is private and cannot be revealed yet.” Kolivan finishes, his tail swishing behind him.

Allura nods her head as if she was expecting that and smiles. “Thank you. We have a few dobashes before Ryner is able to come.”

“How is- Keith, how are you doing?” Hunk tentatively asks, Keith already knows that the Yellow paladin is wringing his hands together underneath the table.

“I’m good.”

“Are they feeding you? You look a little thinner.”

Keith laughs but quickly smothers it when Kolivan and the other blade look at him.

“They are, Hunk. And I think I look the same the last time we called.”

Kolivan turns his focus back to the screen, “What are humans' nutritional needs, Yellow paladin? I will update the cook about Keith’s meals, if needs be.”

Hunk smiles and nods his head before listing the basic food pyramid and what he’s done with the foods he gets from the planets they’ve visited.

“I see, I understand why Keith sneaks into the cafeteria at night now.”

Matt laughs and gets nudged by Nyma.

Keith groans indignantly and elbows Kolivan’s arm. “I do not sneak into the cafeteria.”

Kolivan’s lips slightly curl upward and on the other side of the screen Pidge and Lance are cackling.

“Also, Princess, I do want to try implementing some aspects of Galran foods to Keith. He is so much shorter than normal half breeds normally are and-” Kolivan is cut off by his communicator going off. “I’m sorry, please excuse me for a moment.”

As Kolivan leaves the room he makes a gesture to the other blade- who Keith met roughly his first time in the training rooms- Melukai.

“As Kolivan was saying, if you would grant us permission, we would like to see if a meal change would help Keith’s Galra side.”

“Oh. I hadn’t even thought of food being the reason for his height difference.”

“Is he regular height for humans?” Melukai turns to Shiro, who looks like he’s about to laugh. Matt laughs- well more like cackles- for him.

“Um, no. He’s actually quite short for a human. His dad was actually almost 6’1”, so him being short is a little concerning but we’ve seen him eat all his food, so we can’t complain.” Shiro replies.

“ANYWAYS! The point of the meeting was to talk about the mission.” Keith cuts in and tries to kick Melukai but Melukai somehow can read minds because his tail catches Keith’s ankle before it can make contact. He nudges Keith’s leg with his hand and drops Keith’s leg at the same time, almost making Keith spin out of his chair.

Keith huffs, turning in his seat and pulling out a small string ball out of his suit pocket.

The first week since Keith had arrived at the the Blade base, he found out that string was fucking gold to younger Galra Blade members, or in older Blade's words "cubs". Basically meaning the younger a Galra is, the more like they are to a cat on Earth.

Keith was a cub but didn't really have the effect of string that other younger Blades had. Okay well, from time to time he did have the urge to mess around with string- Alright. Fine, so he was just like the other younger Galra... But that didn’t fucking mean anything!

Melukai’s eyes dilate and grumbles something under his breath before turning back to the screen.

Keith’s arm buzzes and Keith stiffens, quickly turning back to the screen. Everyone is holding back a laugh or at least having mirth in their eyes.

Lance smirks and gestures his head towards Melukai and Keith automatically understands and vehemently shakes his head no.Keith pretends to gag and Melukai whacks the back of Keith’s head with his gloved hand. Keith growls and shoves at the taller Galra until they hit the ground, not hearing the sliding door.

“No fighting outside of the training room or barracks.” Kolivan’s voice shocks both of the smaller Blades and they both scramble to their seats.

“I apologize for that Princess, Blade members know when and when not to have cub fights.” Keith drops his gaze to the floor and tenses.

“It’s alright, I understand your problem more than I should.”

Keith feels everyone’s stare at him and his communicator gives him an out when it goes off.

“Sorry, if you’ll excuse me, I need to take this.” He doesn’t look at anyone and feels his shoulders almost hiked to his ears.

Keith quickly glances at Shiro and Shiro smiles and offers a small wave towards the edge of the table. Keith nods and he quickly leaves the room without looking back, the door shutting behind him.

It’s from Melukai. He must have known Keith needed an out from the situation.

**Melu: I apologize for getting us in trouble.**

Keith sighs and rubs his face.

It’s okay, we were just messing around **:Keith**

I’m sorry for getting you in trouble too. 

Keith continues walking down the hallway and heads towards the cafeteria.

**Melu: Your teammates seem to miss your presence.**

What do you mean by that? : **Keith**

**Melu: The Red, Yellow, and Green paladins are not**

**showing the same expressions when you were here.**

**After you left, I mean.**

Do you mean smiling? I think it’s because they’re **:Keith**

probably terrified of you and Kolivan. 

**Melu: I do not think that is the case.**

So what’s the mission about? **:Keith**

**Melu: I do not like your subject changing.**

A few minutes pass and Keith reaches the cafeteria, he heads towards the snack bar.

**Melu: Voltron needs us to infiltrate the Balirido’s main chief hut**

**and protect/defend any citizens from the planet’s military.**

Is there anything that might be of major importance? **:Keith**

**Melu: They are asking for a simple sacrifice, the military I mean,**

**if we want to end the war before all cities and towns are destroyed.**

So an animal sacrifice? Shouldn’t that be easy? **:Keith**

**Melu: It has to be a person**

They’re asking for a person to be the sacrifice!? **:Keith**

**Melu: It is quite common, I do not understand your shock.**

On Earth, human death is if you did **:Keith**

something really really bad and are caught. 

**Melu: What about sacrifices?**

Humans don't sacrifice anymore. We only did it for **:Keith**

religious purposes, to please the gods or whatever 

**Melu: I think I understand. Anyways, we will not sacrifice anyone,**

**so we are fighting for the safety of the people. Kolivan is finishing**

**up the meeting right now.**

Keith takes the offered bar from the head cook and in turn offers a small smile. Keith had become pretty good friends with some of the cooks, seeing as they remind him of the Yellow paladin back on the Castle ship.

**Melu: If it is alright, can I ask about your reaction after**

**Kolivan called us out?**

I didn’t have the best of childhoods. **:Keith**

**Melu: The Black paladin mentioned something about hitting**

Yeah. **:Keith**

Keith is walking back to his room when he feels a hand appear on his shoulder, at first Keith thinks it’s Lance but reminds himself that he’s not on the Castle ship and hasn’t been there for almost a month.

Keith turns his head and finds Kolivan towering over him. Keith feels all the muscles in his neck and arms tense up.

“Keith.” Kolivan speaks and Keith can’t help but flinch at the deep voice.

“Yes, sir?” His voice is quieter than he wanted it to be and he can feel the terror from his first beating running through his head.

“I need you to understand that we are very serious here, we don’t have time for fooling around and shouldn’t be until our down times.” Keith nods his head, staring down at the floor.

“But since you are a cub, we will treat you like one until you have learned how we take punishments here.” Keith feels like he’s cowering before the tall man before he feels the hand from his shoulder move towards his neck.

“What are you-” Keith droops once he feels the hand grip the back of his neck, lifting him up off of his feet.

“Wha iss thiz?” Keith feels his eyes dip and he suddenly feels like his eyes are an impossible weight.

“This is punishment. Mother or Father Galra will pick up their young when their child is in danger or is being reprimanded. Do humans not do this with their young?” Keith feels his body sagging and he lazily turns his head towards Kolivan, trying to answer.

“No, thay donn.” Keith huffs at his slurred speech and tries to wiggle out of Kolivan’s hold, but Kolivan quickly changes hands and holds Keith closer to his side.

They pass a few Blades and they nod their heads in sympathy to Keith. “Galra only do it to children, either theirs or family or even friends. It relieves and pulls the cub out of the situation, cubs have heightened emotional levels so they’re more likely to act out in some situations.” Kolivan sighs before continuing, “Both you and Melu acted out, albeit playfully, caused the meeting to get distracted. I must apologize for distracting the meeting further in the beginning and embarrassing you.”

As they turn a corner, Melukai is starting to walk down their hallway.

“Nooo, Kolivan! You can’t scruff me yet! I need to go train with Orion!” Melukai tries running but another tall Blade member grabs his neck before he can take another step.

Melukai immediately slumps and Kolivan grabs Melu’s scruff from the other Blade member, mumbling a quiet thanks.

“I’m taking you both to Saram, she’ll be your den mom before we can get in contact with your real mom, Keith.”

“Wha bou Melu?” Keith feels his heavy eyebrows twitch, the act of raising them failing.

Kolivan laughs as a bigger female Blade comes walking down the hallway, directly at them.

“Saram is Melu’s mother.”

* * *

Saram has the grip of a fucking Chinese trap or a human baby. Cause no matter how much struggling both Melu and Keith tried to pull, neither of them even moved a sliver. Not that Keith even tried.

“Ya’ know what? I like Galra parents better than humans.” Keith announced after their thirty two minutes had finished. Keith doesn’t understand why it was thirty two minutes until he realized how much training he had to catch up on, but even losing that time didn’t leave him the fear and trembling as he had on Earth. It wasn’t as much of a consequence as he thought it would be.

“I think I’m going to stay a little longer, if that’s okay with you, Saram.” She smiles and ruffles his hair then walks into the other room.

Melukai nudges Keith with a questioning look, Keith sighs and sits down in one of the metal seats.

“You know how there are good Galra and bad Galra? Well it’s basically the same with any species I guess, but humans are sometimes just as bad. Maybe even worse. Some human children lose their parents and are put in a system that lets them have another chance with a new family. I was put in the system when I was around nine, maybe ten, I think. But I had to switch families a lot because of multiple, uh, problems.”

Melu nods, seeming to understand. “And what does that have to do with your comparison with Galra and Humans?”

Keith waves his hand, “That’s what I’m getting to, um, so we have soulmates and some find their soulmates, and some don’t. I lived in a few homes where the soulmates didn’t find each other, and some were pretty bitter about not finding them, which I mean isn’t bad but it still hurts.”

Melukai looks bored already so Keith tries to hurry it up.

“The first home I lived in, the foster parents weren’t soulmates. The wife’s soulmate had died when they were younger and the husband just never found his. The wife kinda had a little bit of resentment towards him for that and she would sometimes take it out on him…” Keith feels his breath stutter and tries to wipe his sweating hands against his suit.

Melu’s eyes seem to squint and his forehead creases. “Like they would train and fight?”

Keith signs and looks away, “It was more of a one sided fight most of the time. But I think she was just afraid of him leaving her.”

The Galran seems to understand and his mouth drops in shock and tries to do something before realizing he can’t actually do anything to help except for listening. “ Don’t give her an excuse! That’s terrible! Would she do the same to you?”

Keith drops his gaze to his hands, his hair hiding everything in front of him. “...yes.”

“Oh, Keith.” Saram comes out of her hiding place from the hallway and quickly envelops him in a hug.

“I was in a lot of homes before Shiro took me in.”

“The Black paladin?”

“Yeah, he must’ve hated me back then. I was such an awful kid.”

“I don’t think so, I think he understood your actions and still loved you.” Melukai joins in on their hug and sniffs into Keith’s shoulder.

“Um, but with my last foster home, things were okay for a while but I dunno, he started drinking more. He-He would come home and drink. Sometimes he would yell at us and I was always so terrified of someone getting hurt, so I’d step in front of them… He didn’t like it when I did that.” Keith can feel his hands shaking and he closes his eyes, willing his hands to still.

Saram squeezes him tighter to her chest, but lets him continue.

“One night he came home drunk, he had probably been drinking with his friends. My foster mom had just come back from her shift at the vet clinic, um she took care of animals.” Keith clarifies and continues when they nod their heads, “She asked him if he was alright and he turned his head so robotically… I was terrified and at first he didn’t do anything but then he hit her. He-he hit her and I just stood there. I didn’t- I just watched him hit her. I couldn’t move, and when I finally was able to- he threw one of his bottles at me.”

Saram shushes him then, and Keith feels his choked sobs run through him. His body feels like it needs to run, to fight, to scream, to do something so as not to feel weak and broken.

“You said humans have soulmates? Does that mean you have one?” Saram asks, bringing Keith out of the curl he hand pulled himself into.

Keith feels a burst of joy run through him, he quickly wipes away his tears and leans against Melukai.

“He’s wonderful. I- I think I love him.”

Saram smiles and rubs his back while Melukai pretends to gag.

Saram seems like she’s about to say something when both Melu and Keith’s communicators go off.

Melu groans and pulls out of their hug, Keith slowly pulls away but Saram pulls him back in.

“I’ll always be your den mother if you need me.” Tears spring back into Keith’s eyes and he quickly hugs Saram back to hide them.

“Kolivan says we’re leaving in a quintant, so we need to be rested and ready to leave tomorrow night.”

Keith nods against Saram’s shoulder.

“Oh, there’s also a Blade that wants to talk to you.” Melu smiles and offers a hand to Keith.

Keith hugs Saram a little tighter then letting go and taking Melu’s hand.

Melu pulls him into a hug and lets him go to stand on his own for a second before taking his hand again.

“Now, come on. We’ve got someone to meet.”

* * *

Okay, when Keith was told they were meeting a Blade member he didn’t think it’d be this sort of celebrity to the Blade.

“Krolia!" "What happened?!" "Did you meet another general?!" "Did you kill them?!”

The last question throws Keith off but otherwise isn’t really surprised.

Okay, maybe a bit because Krolia is tall. She isn’t as tall as Kolivan, of course, but she is tall. She seems intimidating and maybe a little stand off-ish but sort of seems nice.

Keith and Melu stand in the doorway of the hangar, Melu explained on the way that Krolia had been off on a pretty long extraction mission and came back once she heard the news.

“Wait, you said she came back because of something the Blade found?” Keith asks Melukai and he laughs as an answer.

“More like found us.” Melu mumbles.

Keith shoots him a questioning look but is quickly distracted but the taller Blade walking towards them.

“Hello, Melukai. And I believe your name is Keith? Is that right?” She seems hesitant and takes Keith’s hand gently in hers. She pulls back his glove on his right hand and traces over a cut that’s barely visible.

“Um, that’s right. Melukai said you’re Krolia?” She nods, still staring at his cut.

“You got this playing with my knife, I told your father to watch you but he said you’d learn not to play with it. I didn’t think getting cut would teach you and I was mostly right.” Krolia looks up to his face and smiles. “You learned not to touch the blade but never to not play with it again.”

Keith stares at her, his heart pounding in his chest. “Your knife- You-”

Melu laughs and pulls out Keith’s knife from it’s holding place, holding it out between the two.

Krolia takes it and runs her finger against the edge before handing it to Keith with a smile.

“You’re my mom.” Keith says in disbelief.

“I am.”

Keith stands there for a few seconds before lunging at her and hugging her.

“You’re my mom.” Keith repeats and holds her tighter against his chest.

“I am and I’m never leaving you ever again.” She hugs him back and sniffs.

Keith buries his face in her neck, “Why did you leave us? You- You never came back and Pa never liked talking about it…”

Krolia sighs and runs her hand through his hair and then explains everything.

She had been on a mission to scout out planets of massive quintessence for Zarkon but crashed on Earth after she’d been hit by a rebel ship.

Keith’s father found her and nursed her back to health even if she threatened his life on multiple occasions.

“We fell in love.” She tells him sadly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

Krolia was still healing but still needed to finish her mission so as she healed she fixed up her ship as much as she could.

“So I was a mistake…” Keith states, interrupting Krolia.

“No! Never. We wanted you. I still want you.” Krolia pulls away to look at his face.

She tells him of the message that she sent to the Galra, telling them she’d been injured fighting rebels and was planning to get back on the mission after she was healed.

“They gave me three of your Earth years. I had to report my findings after those three years or they would come to get me and bring me back themselves.”

Krolia gave birth to him in the first year, finally fixed her ship in the second year, and left towards the end of the third year.

“I had to leave, I couldn’t let them find out about Earth. I couldn’t let them kill your father or destroy our home.”

She tells him of the secrets she had to keep, the people she killed to keep Earth a secret and how much she wished to see Keith.

“I came back to Earth, when you would have been about almost thirteen deca-phoebs old, I mean.”

She’s quiet for a while before continuing, “The house was gone.”

Keith nods his head, sadly. “There was a fire, Pa got us out but he must have breathed in too much smoke…”

There’s a long pause.

“I found his grave.” Krolia whispers as she pulls Keith back to her chest.

They’re quiet for some time, and it could’ve been hours, minutes, seconds. They grieved for the lost father and husband, who fought the burning flames daily but was lost to the same fate of others before him.

Even with him gone, they could still feel him close to their hearts. With different memories but still the same man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha ha ha ha ha. The next chapter sucks. I mean I really had a few thoughts that needed to be addressed in this chapter and to me it made more sense if I made this chapter longer and the next ones shorter. Kinda like this chapter is the calm before the storm if that makes any sense. I actually wrote out a confession scene before I wrote out Lance and Keith's fight in Lance's room and it's too good to not have it in sooo ya'll only get a little bit of hidden confession in this chapter.  
> I think this is probably my longest chapter overall. Like it's freaking 9 words and I really struggled with words between dialog... And it took me almost two whole days just to be constantly writing it... Don't worry the next few {read: two _(:з)∠)_ } chapters it'll be better. Hopefully.  
> I know this chapter was SUPER wishy-washy but I have the next chapter and the ending already completed sooo- those will be posted in the next few days sooo yeah. WE ARE SO CLOSE TO THE END. It's almost sad. But yeah! I've really enjoyed writing this.  
> Um, so I've been super busy with my job and I really, really, really want to quit it but I'm still struggling to find a new job. At the job I am at right now, I work almost every day and I'm usually working almost 5.5 hours every night meaning I don't have a lot of time to write. I mean I love the people I work with but I'm getting really tired of being yelled at by customers, I'm starting to get tired of it all. A change in scenery, ya' know? So I'm sorry that this chapter is like SUPER late.  
> ANYWAYS! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! See you in the next chapter!!!!
> 
> Don't just read and run! Reading comments is always the best part of my day!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please help my poor soul and comment any suggestions or corrections!


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